Indiana University will tighten restrictions on student protests in the 2024-2025 academic year, including effectively banning encampments at all nine IU campuses and restricting activities after 11 p.m.
Monday, IU's Board of Trustees approved a new expressive activities policy which takes effect Aug. 1.
The policy tightens time, place and manner restrictions on protesting rights on all IU campuses, including banning camping on campus grounds “unless approved in conjunction with an approved university event,” requiring advanced approval for erecting signs and structures, and restricting allowable expressive activities to between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.
The policy was approved by a vote of 6-3, with trustees Kyle Siebert, Donna Spears and Vivian Winston dissenting.
Final draft of expressive activity policy uses softer language around encampment, restricted spaces
During the board meeting, IU General Counsel Tony Prather said his office received “more than 200 pages” of feedback from IU students and stakeholders on the initial draft of the policy sent out in late June. That feedback, alongside comparing IU’s policy to peer Big 10 institutions, was used to craft the final policy, Prather said.
The revised policy uses considerably softer language than the initial draft, allowing some leeway for camping/encampments with prior approval, removing language prohibiting “markings of any kind” on vertical surfaces and removing language that expressive activities “must not take place in areas that are used for instructional, administrative, or residential purposes.” First Amendment experts expressed concern the previous policy, as written, could severely limit student speech in classrooms and dorms.
The policy was a response to the ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment in Dunn Meadow first erected in April. Universities across the country are similarly revising their free speech codes in response to encampments and protests from the spring semester, including Northwestern University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Trustees Winston and Siebert introduce failed amendments, vote ‘no’
Disagreement and dissent was visible amongst the trustees during the July 29 meeting, with the final draft passing 6-3 – a rare occurrence for a board that frequently votes unanimously. Student trustee Kyle Siebert, and elected trustees Donna Spears and Vivian Winston voted against the policy.
Both Siebert and Winston introduced amendments attempting to further soften the language and prevent more punitive measures with respect to students. Trustee Siebert introduced an amendment to remove the policy’s time restrictions and another to shorten the window for IU approving signs and structures from 10 days to three. Both were seconded and brought to the floor for a vote, but failed.
Winston also introduced two amendments. Winston recommended amending a section that said, “Should anyone attempt to prevent the removal of an unapproved structure, Indiana University’s Associate Vice President/Superintendent for Public Safety will make the determination with respect to the engagement of any additional resources necessary to remove an unapproved structure." Winston recommended adding that calling and deploying Indiana State Police was “only allowable as a last resort.” The amendment failed to receive a second.
Winston also introduced an amendment to modify language that said conduct “reasonably believed to be in violation of the Expressive Activity Policy may result in immediate action." Winston recommended striking “immediate” and instead allow a window of three days for determining punitive action.
“I think immediate means that they’re guilty until proven innocent, and I did not find anything in any other universities that had immediate sanctions,” Winston said. “In the United States, you’re innocent until proven guilty.”
That amendment also failed to receive a second.
New expressive activity policy could give way for clearing of encampments
The policy has been critiqued by pro-Palestinian protesters at IU Bloomington, IUB’s Student Government, IU’s American Association of University Professors chapter and First Amendment advocates for its vague wording and for allegedly targeting pro-Palestinian activism.
IU Faculty and Staff for Israel, a pro-Israel group on Bloomington’s campus that’s been critical of the encampment in Dunn Meadow, expressed support for the policy and encouraged the trustees to extend the policy to staff and visitors, as well as adopt or reference language from IU’s codes on harassment within its definition of expressive activities.
Although encampments in Dunn Meadow and at other IU campuses have been in violation of IU policies since April, codifying the new expressive activity policy is seen by many as a step toward clearing encampments ahead of the 2024-2025 school year.
Naomi Satterfield, a PhD student at IU's School of Public Health, said the policy could have wide-ranging implications for expressive activities at IU, even outside of protest.
"The proposed policy does not define 'expressive activity,' so it can be wielded to silence anything that our administration perceives as such," Satterfield said. "It's not difficult to see that this policy is not for Hoosiers."
Protesters, who erected the encampment to raise awareness for the ongoing displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and encourage IU to disclose and divest from its financial ties to Israel, say the encampment has been an effective means of organizing and applying pressure to the university.
Bryce Greene, a leader of the Bloomington encampment and founder of IU’s Palestine Solidarity Committee, said the policy was built to justify IU’s actions on April 25 and 27, when more than 50 people were arrested.
“The freedom of expression policy that the university is pushing is again using this pretext of ‘safety’ to justify the previous brutality and to justify future brutality,” Greene said.
According to a June memo from Prather, President Pamela Whitten will direct an effort to “enhance the efficacy of the Expressive Activity Policy” in the spring 2025 semester through input from IU community members.
Greene, who attended the July 29 meeting, said during a public comment period the policy did not have the support of IU students and community members.
“Why do you hate students? No student I’ve talked to was in favor of this policy. No faculty member I’ve talked to was in favor of this policy,” Greene said. “So why does the Board of Trustees think that the voices of students and faculty don’t matter?”
Reach Brian Rosenzweig atbrian@heraldt.com. Follow him on Twitter/X at@brianwritesnews.
