The Indiana University Board of Trustees voted 6-3 in support of a new expressive activity policy which goes into effect today. The policy bans camping, limits hours of expressive activity from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and requires that structures be approved by the university at least 10 days in advance. Violation of the policy could result in the removal of tents or even suspension from campus. Today, you will hear a WFHB News special on the Dunn Meadow encampment protests and the university’s response to those protests.

On Wednesday, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Showalter House, which is off the bypass by the IU Golf Course. This was the location where IU President Pamela Whitten met with community leaders for a social event.

The protest took place in direct opposition to the new expressive policy and Whitten’s handling of the Palestine solidarity protests and the encampments established in Dunn Meadow – an area historically dedicated to student demonstrations. The new policy reverses decades of precedent for civil protest at the university.

On Wednesday, WFHB News spoke with IU Divestment Coalition Coordinator Bryce Greene outside the Showalter House. Greene commented on the university’s new expressive activity policy saying that he believes the new policy shows the university is attempting to justify its actions against protesters back in April.

“The new policy is explicitly designed to justify their past violence and also justify future violence against students all because they don’t want students protesting,” said Greene.

Greene then outlined his efforts organizing these protests over the past three months saying the encampments have lasted for almost 100 days.

“Our university continues to be invested in and continues to have partnerships with organizations that explicitly support genocide. And we are mobilizing and organizing around it,” he said. “We’re going to keep organizing and keep struggling until our demands are met.”

WFHB News asked what comes next for the Dunn Meadow protests after the new policy essentially bans the encampments. While the demonstrators have yet to release an official statement, Greene hinted that protests will continue within the constraints of the new policy.

 “I mean it’s really the same answer that it’s always been. You have to find creative ways based on the constraints of the system that you’re trying to change. That was the case in the 60s, that’s the case now and that’ll be the case 100 years in the future. And so, we continue in that tradition,” said Greene.

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In April 2024, IU formed an ad-hoc committee after hearing about a planned encampment in Dunn Meadow protesting the university’s relationship with Israel’s war on Gaza. Overnight, the committee changed the long-standing Dunn Meadow policy, prohibiting the installation of structures, including tents, without advanced approval.

According to a third-party review of the Dunn Meadow encampment protests done by Cooley LLP, a law firm based out of Chicago, the IU Police Department, “lacked adequate staffing or the specialized training necessary to respond to a significant protest event.” That’s when the university brought in the Indiana State Police to enforce its policy.

The day following the policy change, snipers were spotted on the roof of the student union, a state police helicopter surveilled the demonstration, and both students and faculty received bans from campus. State police arrested 57 people in Dunn Meadow in late April.

The state police specifically targeted IU student and organizer Bryce Greene. Police body cam footage was released by Indiana Public Media in July. In the footage, you can overhear officers target Greene among the crowd of protesters.

Greene said that IU attempted to “make an example” out of him by having state police target him. In his mind, however, the movement would not be deterred.

“They’re trying to demoralize us, and they’re trying to put a chilling effect on all this stuff going on on campus. But as long as there are people who have good conscience and good faith and who are committed to a better world, then we have nothing to worry about. You just have to find your voice and act on it,” said Greene.

At the end of the day, Greene says that the ultimate goal of the protests is divestment from Israel’s war on Gaza. This includes ending the university’s partnership with the Crane naval base and its affiliation with corporations that support the war.

“All of these points are deeply important to people who do not want to live in a world where our institutions are supporting genocide. It’s deeply important for people to stand up and fight back,” he said.

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit against Indiana University, saying it violated the first amendment rights of three plaintiffs facing a one-year ban from campus for their participation in political protests on the IU-Bloomington campus.

The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office dropped chargers for those arrested at Dunn Meadow. According to a statement from the prosecutor’s office from May 31st, “Based upon the facts and circumstances surrounding these arrests, including, among other things, the constitutionally dubious process by which the University passed and enforced its new policy regarding structures in Dunn Meadow, the State is unlikely to be able to convict these individuals at trials on the merits.”

IU has maintained that it’s within its first amendment rights. The university put out a news release earlier this week stating “Indiana University has a longstanding commitment to free speech for all. In order for free speech to flourish, we need to clarify our policies so people clearly understand the allowable time, manner and place for free expression. We can’t let one person or group’s expression infringe on the rights of others, disrupt learning experiences for our students or interrupt regular business.”

J. Alexander Tanford is a professor at the IU Maurer School of Law and the President of the IU American Association of University Professors or AAUP. In early July, the AAUP released a statement criticizing the university for its limit of three weeks for public feedback on the policy governing “expressive activity.”

The statement said, “This is an unreasonably brief amount of time to carefully deliberate and design a new policy, particularly during the summer when students are dispersed and faculty are devoting time to their research.” The statement acknowledged that expressive activity lies at the core of academic freedom traditionally associated with IU. The organization said that while the policy ostensibly claims to defend free speech rights, it does quite the opposite.

Professor Tanford reiterated the IU American Association of University Professors’ statement calling on the IU Board of Trustees to allow more time to hear from students and faculty before coming up with a new policy.

“You can’t possibly have a discussion involving the people who are going to be affected by this – faculty and students – giving them time to digest and make comments when you do it in the summer, when they’re not there,” said Tanford.

Tanford then shifted his focus to the first amendment. In his view, the new policy goes against students’ free speech rights and silences basic forms of protest.

“It misunderstands the fundamental aspect of symbolic speech and its protection under the First Amendment. Expressive activities occurring after 11 o’clock are absolutely classic forms of protest,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to the university’s statement, “the expressive activity policy continues to encourage freedom of expression for all while also setting clear expectations for how members of the IU community and visitors to IU campuses must behave.”

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In May, the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition voted in favor of a “no confidence” vote in IU President Pamela Whitten followed by a three-day strike.

Overall, the graduate workers have been critical of how the university president dealt with the Dunn Meadow encampments. On the day of the arrests, the grad workers denounced the “brutality exercised upon peaceful demonstrators” and expressed disappointment in IU administrators “who failed to prevent this police violence and brutality upon students they are charged with mentoring and protecting.” Members of the IGWC were among those arrested on April 25th and 27th for criminal trespass in Dunn Meadow.

WFHB News spoke with Michael McCarthy, member of the Coordinating Committee for the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, about what the new policy means for the upcoming school year. McCarthy said the new policy would impact the graduate workers strike and is an attempt to shut down free speech for students and faculty.

“This is really just an attempt to destroy some of the last rights that we have remaining to us, as organizers of a labor union. And when they take that away, it’s an attempt to shut us down. And it’s one that we resist very strongly,” said McCarthy.

He said it uses the first amendment as its rationale; however, he believes the university is suppressing freedom of speech.

“It uses free speech as a cudgel to actually repress free speech. So it says that by speaking out on campus, by being visible, by being heard, by protesting, we are effectively shutting down other speech. That’s not true,” he said.

As for next steps, McCarthy postulates that students will react against the recent move by IU. While he’s unsure how that opposition will play out, he expects students to “fight back.”

“There’s going to be a movement against it. I can already see the early rumblings of that. I don’t think that this is going to be something that people on campus are going to put aside lightly,” said McCarthy.

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At around 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday, WFHB News traveled to Dunn Meadow to hear from demonstrators about what the future holds for the encampment.

One protester who uses the alias, Fox, said the new policy silences dissenting voices and limits students’ freedom of expression.

“It will be significantly harder for students to have their voices heard. And not only students but the faculty that have also been expressing since April,” they said.

Moving forward, there’s a level of uncertainty on what happens next for the Dunn Meadow demonstrations. Fox said that protests and demands for divestment will continue.

“At the moment, a little bit undecided. We will still protest. We will still encourage divestment. However I do not think that there is an active plan to maintain the encampments. If we are told to disperse, however, that is subject to change.”

Other protesters say a more cohesive plan for the future will be announced in the coming days. Fox speculated on how the policy will play out in the upcoming school year.

“That’s really up in the air,” they said. “The student body and faculty are dissenting openly, no matter how or what form it takes.”

Again, the university has maintained that the new policy focuses on free speech, stating in a news release, “The new policy supports protests and demonstrations that don’t materially and substantially disrupt university operations or hinder the expressive activity of another individual or group.”

However, Fox said they don’t think the policy protects free speech.

“It doesn’t. It’s designed to protect the private interests of the people who are making money off of IU; it does not protect free speech,” they said.

WFHB News spoke to another protestor who reiterated the main goal of the demonstrations: the liberation of Palestine.

“At the end of the day the goal is the liberation of Palestine through the divestment of trained naval infrastructure from IU,” said the demonstrator. “Students’ rights is an important issue. Free speech is an important issue. But we are here for Palestine, Palestine alone.”