What’s New
Indiana University at Bloomington’s Board of Trustees on Monday voted 6-3 to pass an expressive-activity policy that limits protests to certain hours of day, bans light projections on buildings without approval, and requires that protesters stay 25 feet away from the entrance to university buildings.
“Indiana University has a longstanding commitment to advancing free speech,” the trustees’ chair, W. Quinn Buckner, said in a statement. “In order for free speech for all to flourish, we needed to clarify our policies so people clearly understand the allowable time, manner and place for free expression. We can’t let one person or group’s expression infringe on the rights of others, disrupt learning experiences for our students, or interrupt regular university business.”
The rules, which follow the release of an independent report that recommended a new policy, have been harshly criticized by some students and faculty who argue their constitutional right to protest is being unfairly curtailed.
The policy prohibits overnight protests, like the pro-Palestinian encampment that has been active on the campus’s Dunn Meadow for months, unless they are approved as part of a university event.
The university’s president, Pamela Whitten, has previously said that while the vast majority of recent protesters have been peaceful, she “came to the conclusion that the encampments were not something that could be tolerated.”
The Details
The new policy stipulates, among other things, that:
- Protests must only occur between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.
- Protests must be at least 25 feet away — “or whatever space is necessary to preserve public health, safety, and welfare” — from building entrances.
- The installation of “structures and/or mass physical objects” must be approved by the university 10 days in advance.
The Backdrop
Earlier this year, college campuses across the nation faced a furious wave of encampments protesting the war in Gaza.
In Bloomington, administrators met the evening before an encampment was set to be built and approved a new policy prohibiting tents. The police later arrested over 50 demonstrators in attempts to clear the encampment.
“Many other schools were able to allow some sort of protest encampment,” said Laura Beltz, director of policy reform at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “What we saw at IU was an outlier.”
Though many encampments nationwide have since dispersed, Indiana’s remains. But the policy approved Monday may change that.
Supporting free speech while keeping students safe has proven a tough line for college leaders to walk. Administrators’ decision to try to break up protests — at Indiana and elsewhere — was met with scorn by many students and faculty.
In an event held on campus Friday, critics spoke out against the draft rules, challenging their legality and arguing they would create a chill on free speech, the Indiana Daily Student reported. “The requirement for approval is antithetical to the point of protest,” one doctoral student said.
What to Watch For
While Beltz said Indiana was more aggressive than many other colleges in cracking down on campus protests, the university is not alone in writing new rules that will govern the issue going forward.
The University of Pennsylvania, the University of South Florida, the University of Michigan, and Columbia University, among others, have rewritten or are rewriting their protest rules after the upheaval of the past year.
“We are seeing a lot of colleges revising their policies right now,” Beltz said. “The sort of overcorrections that we’re seeing are fairly common.”
