Week 10: IU free speech policy protesters cite uneven enforcement for ESPN GameDay football crowds

Sunday night was the 10th week in a row for a protest at Sample Gates in Bloomington, against Indiana University’s new “expressive activities” policy, which was effective Aug. 1.

Sample Gates is the spot where Kirkwood Avenue dead ends at the western edge of the Bloomington campus.

On the university campus, during the 7-hour window from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., the policy prohibits expressive activities like vigils.

The timing of the regular Sunday night protests is meant to deliberately violate the new policy. In recent weeks, the protest has started at around 10:30 p.m. so that participants who have already been sanctioned by the university and threatened with termination for further violations of the policy, can still speak on the campus side of the plaza.

A pattern has evolved: At 11 p.m. a handful of protesters who don’t want to risk termination from their jobs or expulsion from the school, retreat to the public sidewalk for the duration of the protest.

The highlight of Sunday’s activity was the reading aloud of a draft letter that has been written by IU history professor Alex Lichtenstein, on behalf of the 23 people so far who have been sanctioned under the new policy. Lichtenstein has been sanctioned and threatened with termination if he commits further violations of the policy which is called UA-10.

According to protesters, the only people who have been sanctioned so far under UA-10 were reprimanded because of their participation in the Sunday night vigils.

The draft letter is addressed to Rahul Shrivastav, who is provost of the university, and Carrie Docherty, who is vice provost for faculty and academic affairs.

The letter concludes by inviting Shrivastav and Docherty to the next vigil on Nov. 3 from 10:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., to announce the end of the policy’s prohibition against expressive activities after 11 p.m. and to offer their apologies for the “blatantly inconsistent enforcement of UA-10.”

The most recent example of inconsistent enforcement cited by Sample Gates protesters involves the crowds drawn to the athletic campus this past Friday night and Saturday morning by the ESPN College GameDay visit—for Saturday’s home football game against University of Washington. (The Hoosiers prevailed 31–17, bringing IU’s record to 8–0 on the season.)

The letter notes that the football crowds on Friday night into Saturday morning were in violation of UA-10 just like the Sample Gates protesters have been—but were not reprimanded, which amounts to uneven enforcement.

From the letter:

[A]s you surely know, on the night of October 25 and into the early morning hours of the next day, thousands of students gathered outside of Memorial Stadium along 17th Street in anticipation of College GameDay.

While some of those students remained on the sidewalk—as the vigil participants you have reprimanded now do by Sample Gates, in order to avoid violating UA-10—from videos and photographs taken overnight, it does appear that many of the students massed on campus property between 11 p.m. on Friday and 6 a.m. on Saturday. Many carried signs and expressed their excitement about the game. These students were clearly in violation of multiple regulations included under UA-10.

Have they been called to account in any way? We suspect not, and we are glad for it, as we believe their behavior is an inevitable part of campus culture at IU that should not be barred overnight. And yet, in fact, it is so barred under UA-10.

It is difficult to understand why their behavior, which is far more disruptive to the peace of the campus than our own, it must be said, is tolerated by the university. While ours, as faculty, students and staff, participating in a peaceful vigil after 11 p.m. is not. We are as much members of this community as they are. Why have we been singled out for punishment?

Providing another highlight for Sunday night’s vigil were remarks in support of the protesters from an anthropology professor at Indiana University South Bend. He pointed out that UA-10 affects not just the Bloomington campus, but all of the Indiana University campuses. The policy bothers him in his role as a current faculty member, as an alum of the university, and as the parent of a current student, he said. He told the protesters: “So I support you. What you’re doing is being heard.”

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit over the policy 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.

During two days of protests in late April, the university used state police in riot gear to break up the protest encampment on Dunn Meadow.

A key claim in the ACLU’s lawsuit is that the 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. timeframe in UA-10 is “overbroad.”

All of the briefs have now been filed in connection with motion for a preliminary injunction, which was filed on Sept. 16.

On Oct. 1, the university filed its response to the ACLU’s motion for a preliminary injunction. On Oct. 7, the ACLU filed its reply to the university’s response.

That means all the briefs are now filed in connection with the motion for a preliminary injunction, under the case management plan.