IU officials issue statement after student arrests and faculty condemnation

Protests are breaking out on university campuses across the country in opposition to Israel's war in Gaza and the role the U.S. plays in it. 

At Indiana University, students and faculty are pressuring the university to divest from Israel.

IU Divestment Coalition spokesperson Bryce Greene said the group hopes to remain in Dunn Meadow until their demands are met.

Here are updates from the fourth day of protests at IU:
 

8:30 p.m.

IU President Pamela Whitten and Provost Rahul Shrivastav sent out a statement explaining the university's decisions and how they plan to move forward. 

The update says Shrivastav met with student leaders from Union Board and IU Student Government, as well as the President-Elect of the Bloomington Faculty Council, among others. 

"With their insight, we are in the process of appointing a taskforce of student leaders and representatives of the Bloomington Faculty Council to review our event protocols and make recommendations to guide activities on campus, particularly in Dunn Meadow, moving forward."

Additionally, they said they are in the process of approving a formal request from a student organization to set up a temporary structure in Dunn Meadow. 

"This request will be contingent on a set of mutually agreed parameters. We anticipate the request to be approved—with the possibility of renewal—in 48-hour increments."

The update confirms that students and faculty that were arrested will be able to complete their semester on campus by appealing their trespass warnings through IUPD.

The update also states the reasoning for the updated structure policy is due to "a troubling rise in antisemitism nationally and on college campuses... linked to this national encampment campaign."
 

2:30 p.m. 

IU's Journalism unit sent an open letter to Whitten, Shrivastav and other administration today asking them to "halt further police action and surveillance, apologize to those arrested and reinstate their campus access, and restore the previous policy regarding Dunn Meadow demonstrations." The full letter reads as follows:

"The overwhelming majority of faculty in The Media School, with support from select emeriti and retired faculty, condemn the university administration’s repressive crackdown on protests in Dunn Meadow. Administrative response has grown increasingly militarized and threatening to student safety, with at least one Media School student among those who have been injured by police over the past several days.

"IU’s Board of Trustees in 1969 designated Dunn Meadow as a public forum, and since then it has been the site of countless vigorous demonstrations of public expression. Such demonstrations are a hallmark both of a dynamic intellectual environment and our treasured rights as citizens under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The recent protests were not the first to involve participants setting up tents and supplies in anticipation of a lengthy demonstration, but sadly, this is the first time in recent memory that the IU administration reacted with such brute force. The administration has crossed a red line by choosing an authoritarian stance that is antithetical to the mission of an institution of higher learning. In so doing, it has damaged the university’s credibility and moral center.

"The administration’s decision to call in riot troops to assault and arrest students and faculty who are protesting peacefully has shattered our university’s most cherished values, and authorizing armed police on campus rooftops has endangered us all. In choosing intimidation, the university has violated the rights of academic freedom and freedom of expression. And in summarily banning arrestees from campus for one year, it has ignored fundamental rights of due process.

"By justifying these decisions under the guise of a questionable last-minute policy change, the administration has also demonstrated contempt for our core principle of shared governance. Further, given the nature of the policy change, it bears the characteristics of a content-discrimination action, the kind that courts have for many years found unconstitutional. The university not only endangers the campus by over-reacting but also risks financial loss when arrested students and faculty inevitably file lawsuits.

"As a faculty expressly charged with teaching our students about these values in the pursuit of journalism and other expressions of public communication, we strongly dissent from these anti-democratic acts. How can we instill respect for core principles of democratic life when our own administration fails to live up to them? We call on the IU administration to halt further police action and surveillance, apologize to those arrested and reinstate their campus access, and restore the previous policy regarding Dunn Meadow demonstrations. We further call on the Bloomington Faculty Council to investigate these violations of faculty governance, academic freedom, freedom of expression and due process, and call for those responsible to be held accountable. It is critical that we expose the root of this shameful chapter in IU’s history."
 

12 p.m.

Additional state and local officials have released statements on the protests.

The Indiana Memorial Union Board released a statement Saturday calling for university administration to clarify what business the Indiana State Police conducted in its building.

"Students perceived that there was a sniper on the roof of the IMU. Students on our Board also watched as Indiana State Police walked through our office with guns. We were never initially consulted or notified about the State Police setting up on our roof."

The statement continues, "We've been unofficially told that the officer on our roof was holding a scope rather than a firearm... considering the photos circling social media, this casual explanation is far from compelling."

Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson released an apology Sunday afternoon to clarify her original statements.
 

"In my message about the protests yesterday, I made a statement about the presence of outside groups," she said. "We had reports of Proud Boys and other involvement, and I had concern about the possibility of escalation beyond what our students and faculty present on campus were gathered to achieve."

Senator Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington) said she is "deeply concerned with the arrests of students, staff and faculty for exercising their First Amendment rights."

"The widely reported change in policy regarding tents and structures by IU’s Administration on the eve of these protests—which was then used as justification to arrest peaceful protestors and ban them from campus property for a year—is incredibly disturbing," she said. "Free speech is only protected for all when there are clear and consistent rules enforced—not when rules are changed overnight and established processes are ignored."

A statement from the Indiana Senate Democrats also shared the same sentiments, calling for the university to deescalate the situation by asking police to leave room for peaceful protesting.