Weekly protest against ‘expressive activity’ policy at IU Bloomington kicks off September
At 11 p.m. on Sunday night, the first day of September, around 80 people gathered for a candlelight vigil at Indiana University’s Sample Gates, where Kirkwood Avenue dead ends at the western edge of the Bloomington campus.
It was the second, now weekly, vigil that has been organized to protest a new “expressive activities” policy enacted by the IU board of trustees, effective Aug. 1.
The choice of 11 p.m. as a start time 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. Even a silent vigil would qualify under the policy as “expressive activity” because a “peaceful assembly” is listed explicitly under the policy’s definition as a prohibited activity during the 7-hour window.
In addition to participating in a peaceful assembly, some of Sunday’s attendees made speeches, passed out literature, or carried signs, all of which are called out in the policy as examples of expressive activities. One woman carried a blank sign in ironic protest of the policy.
Addressing the gathering to lead things off was Russ Skiba, who introduced himself as a professor emeritus in the university’s school of education. Skiba cautioned vigil attendees that they were being surveilled and that they could be reported by the IU police observers to IU vice provost for faculty and academic affairs, Carrie Docherty.
After a similar event the week before, Skiba said, three members of the IU community were reported and are now ”in the middle of some form of not-yet-completely-defined process of being sanctioned with a crime of engaging in brief speech at a time not allowed under the university’s expressive activity policy.”
The three included two faculty and one student.
Six other faculty reported on a faculty listserv that they had also attended the vigil, engaging in expressive activity together. Skiba told the gathering the three plus the six are now being called the “Candlelight Nine.”
According to Skiba, the faculty in the Candlelight Nine were required to meet with their respective deans this past week. Of the initial three, the two faculty named by Skiba were Ben Robinson, associate professor in Germanic studies, and Heather Akou, associate professor in fashion design.
The student, Bryce Greene, who is working towards a doctorate in informatics, is required to meet with the associate dean of students this coming Tuesday, Skiba said.
Greene is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against IU over the policy, which 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 enactment of the “expressive activities” policy came about three months after two days of arrests of Dunn Meadow demonstrators in late April.
After the Dunn Meadow Gaza protest encampment was allowed to persist through the summer, on the second day the “expressive activities” policy was in effect, IU police moved in to clear the meadow of property connected to the protest encampment.
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.”
On Sunday, the attendees heard from representatives of the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, who expressed concern about the new IU policy, as well as the impact of a new state law [SB 202] on their ability to teach, by subjecting faculty and graduate workers to unfair scrutiny, they said.
Also addressing the gathering was Alex Lichtenstein who introduced himself as a professor in the history department and the American studies department. “It’s way past my bedtime,” Lichtenstein quipped.
Lichtenstein said he was there to support the Candlelight Nine. He continued “I decided it was only fair for me to step up, stand with them in solidarity, and I hope that many, indeed a majority of my colleagues, will agree to do the same thing over the coming weeks, until this particular policy [is abolished].”
Sunday’s vigil concluded with attendees reading quotations on free speech and protest from notable historical figures. The quotes, distributed on slips of paper, were read aloud as participants took turns around the circle that had formed.
One came from Barack Obama: “Societies held together by fear and repression may offer the illusion of stability for a time, but they are built upon fault lines that will eventually tear asunder.”
Another came from Albert Einstein: “Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.”
