Debate intensifies on campus as Indiana University suspends professor and cancels a Palestinian artist's exhibit

Tensions on U.S. college campuses have been rising since the Israel-Hamas war started more than 100 days ago. Polls show there’s an uptick in reported incidents of antisemitism on campuses.

Congressman Jim Banks sent a letter to Indiana University saying they’re not doing enough to stand up to antisemitism on campus and threatened the school could lose federal funding.

In the weeks and months that followed, the school has made some decisions that sparked debate and concern about free speech including the suspension of a tenured professor and a last-minute cancelation of an art exhibit by a renowned Palestinian artist.

WFYI’s Darian Benson spoke with WFIU’s higher education reporter Aubrey Wright, who has been following this story.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and style.

Darian Benson: Tenured political science professor Abdulkader Sinno was suspended. Aubrey, can you explain what happened?

Aubrey Wright: In Jim Banks's letter, he said that he heard about pro-Palestinian protests on campus, and then accusations of antisemitism at IU Student Government. And he basically told Indiana University [officials] curb this or you're going to be in trouble. So, Professor Sinno, he's the advisor of the Palestine Solidarity Committee. The [committee] held a large event on campus without an approved room request. And you know, holding an unapproved event is not totally unheard of. But what is unusual, faculty say, is that Sinno was suspended for two semesters and this is pretty severe.

And I've talked to faculty and they say that he was supposed to have a hearing in front of an elected committee of his peers, and that didn't happen.

“There needs to be a cessation of these kinds of political interferences in campuses, and efforts to quash speech,” said Professor Jeffrey C. Isaac who weighed in on Sinno’s suspension and faculty's response.

They think the administration sidestepped campus policy to punish Sinno after this kind of political pressure from Rep. Jim banks.

(In a statement, a spokesperson for IU said: “"Indiana University carefully follows its policies and procedures and is fully committed to free speech and academic freedom that fosters robust intellectual inquiry.”)

Benson: And then about a month later, IU canceled a major art exhibit by Samia Halaby, who is widely regarded as one of the most important living Palestinian artists. Why was it canceled?

Wright: It's still pretty unclear. IU cited security concerns, but they haven't been super transparent. They haven't elaborated on what those concerns could be or if any threats were made to the art or campus. Provost Rahul Shrivastav, explained some of his reasoning in a faculty meeting. He said that the show would have been a lightning rod for protests in the middle of campus.

Madison Gordon, Halaby’s  niece and collaborator, said that Halaby is one of Palestine’s foremost artists, very politically active, and she thinks that IU felt the need to distance itself from Halaby.

“In the two sentence letter to us, they said there were security concerns, but I have received absolutely no evidence that that's the case,” Gordon said.

Benson: And can you talk a little bit about what reaction has been like on campus?

Wright: Yeah, it's tense. I will give you an example. I went to a faculty council meeting this week. Normally, these are so boring. There's 10 people who show up. But this week, I think they were probably pushing like 70 people, they were there listening. They were there protesting. But I think that faculty and very many students are losing their faith, losing the respect for the administration, in this kind of constant excuse of security concerns.

Benson: Now, this is all happening as part of a large discussion and debate around Israel's war in Gaza. And it seems Indiana lawmakers have also weighed in with a new bill?

Wright: Basically, the bill defines and bans antisemitism.Indiana already bans religious discrimination in general, but this is a little bit more specific. Jewish students for a long time have been saying that they don't feel safe on campus in Indiana schools, and that bills like this were created before the war.

But a lot of the controversy now is if pro-Palestinian or anti Zionist speech can be considered antisemitic. And you know, lawmakers, like Jim Banks thinks so, many families and students agree. So, I can see this bill moving forward, but we'll see.

(HB 1002 was unanimously approved by the House on Thursday. It now heads to the Senate. A similar bill cleared the house last year but died in the Senate.)