Campus notebook: Dunn Meadow destination for weekly protest against IU ‘expressive activity’ policy
On Sunday night just after 11 p.m., for the fourth week in a row, a protest against Indiana University’s new “expressive activities” policy was held at Indiana University’s Sample Gates.
It’s the spot where Kirkwood Avenue dead ends at the western edge of the Bloomington campus.
The choice of 11 p.m. as a start time and the location on campus was a deliberate violation of the policy. On the university campus, during the 7-hour window from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., the policy prohibits expressive activities like vigils.
Some elements of the weekly vigil were the same as for the previous three—candles, signs, speeches, and singing.
Other elements were new. One of those new features was a procession that wound from Sample Gates to Dunn Meadow, led by some vigil attendees who held a banner calling for the ouster of IU president Pamela Whitten.
When the procession arrived at Dunn Meadow, near the entrance to the Indiana Memorial Union off 7th Street, the banner was affixed to the chain link fence that still surrounds the meadow. The fence was installed in early August, just after the university cleared from the meadow an encampment supporting Gaza.
Another new element came in the form of speeches from the public sidewalk, given by IU faculty and staff who have been issued a disciplinary letter for violating the “expressive activities” policy at previous vigils. They used a portable PA system to amplify their voices to be heard at Sample Gates.
Violating the policy a second time can result in a “severe sanction,” which the university says can end in termination, even for tenured faculty. That’s according to those who have been issued the disciplinary letters, for their personnel files, which are called “common sanctions.”
The IU administration’s message to staff members is that a second infraction of the policy “will result” in termination of their employment.
Part of the Whitten administration’s procedural approach is to assign university officials to the vigils, to deliver a formal notification to those gathered that if they do not move off the campus to the public sidewalk, they are in violation of the policy. On Sunday, that message was delivered by IU’s deputy superintendent of public safety, Anthony Williams.
Williams approached the task as routine: “We go through the motions—you’ve been here. You know everything, you know it all already.” He told those who were gathered, “You know the policy. It’s 11 o’clock. We ask that you move to the public sidewalk.”
University staff at the vigil wear lanyards with a card in a plastic sleeve that reads “Expressive Activity Support Team,” with a list of cautions on the reverse.
Protestors have created cards and lanyards of their own, that mimic the appearance of those worn by the university staff. On the front side, they say “Free Speech Support Team.” On the reverse, they include a set of encouragements.
From the public sidewalk, Kogge read aloud from the letter she had received, which included the point that she’d been informed about the policy on the occasion when she violated it, and the statement that she would be fired, if she violated the policy again.
From the letter that Kogge received and read aloud:
This letter serves as written warning for violation of the Indiana University expressive activity policy (UA10). A due process meeting was held with you today. During the meeting, you confirmed that you were engaged in expressive activity on campus after 11 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2024. At the time, you were made aware that your behavior was in violation of policy UA10. You were afforded the opportunity to comply with the policy. However you chose to remain on campus in direct violation of the time restrictions that are clearly identified in the policy. Further violations of this policy will result in the separation of your employment with Indiana University.
A lawsuit over the policy was filed on Aug. 29 by the ACLU. The defendants in the case are the IU board of trustees and IU president Pamela Whitten.
The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of ten plaintiffs—all of whom joined a protest in Dunn Meadow against the war in Gaza on April 25, or in the following days, according to the filed complaint.
The key point of the ACLU lawsuit is that the policy violates the First Amendment, because the time period from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. is “substantially overbroad and is not appropriately tailored.”
The lawsuit also highlights the fact that the punishments for violating the policy can include immediate actions of “citation, trespass, and/or interim suspension from campus.” The policy can also ultimately result in “suspension or exclusion from the University” or “suspension or termination of University employment.”
