Attorneys' settlement efforts fail

Despite a teleconference attempt last week, IU and the Genocide Awareness Project haven't reached a compromise to settle group's civil rights lawsuit against the University. \nThe Center for Bio-Ethical Reform filed the lawsuit against IU earlier this year saying the University had violated GAP's civil rights by not letting the group display pictures of aborted fetuses behind Woodburn Hall. The University said the display could be set up in Dunn Meadow, the designated area for free speech activity on campus.\nEarlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Young delayed his ruling on a preliminary injunction until December and told IU and GAP they could and should compromise before then.\n"In spite of the judges urging that the University discuss alternative display sites, the University was not only unwilling to propose any alternative outdoor display sites, but they were unwilling to consider any of the outdoor display sites we suggested," said Gregg Cunningham, director for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.\nCunningham said he suggested sites near the Sample Gates and the Arboretum as alternative locations when he spoke with Kiply Drew, associate University counsel.\n"We had three sites in mind for each location," Cunningham said. "We proposed half a dozen alternatives and they weren't even willing to talk about them."\nDrew confirmed that IU and the center were unable to agree on a location.\n"The University's position has consistently been that the outdoor location should be Dunn Meadow," she said. "The judge encouraged us at the end of the hearing to see if we could kind of pick up where we left off last spring. He did not direct us to find them an alternative outdoor location and the kinds of alternatives we were willing to put forward are not in the nature of another outdoor location."\nBecause the lawsuit deals with the constitutionality of IU's assembly ground policy, Drew said that allowing the GAP display in another outdoor location would contradict IU's position in the lawsuit.\n"One alternative we came up with is to let them have Alumni Hall in the Union," Drew said. "They could split up the display and have part outdoors in Dunn Meadow and part in Alumni Hall. We also said we would help them facilitate some kind forum or academic discourse for the opposing viewpoints. (Cunningham) was completely uninterested."\nCunningham said GAP declined the offer to present the display indoors because of testimony from the hearing on the preliminary injunction. He said the center intends to inform the judge about the groups being unable to compromise.\n"Dean (of Students Richard) McKaig testified under oath in open court that he had rejected the option of our being forced to take the display indoors because his view was that it was a violation of First Amendment rights. And now here\'s Kiply Drew turning around and proposing something that her own dean said was a violation," he said. "The University is not speaking with one voice."\nMcKaig said he feels the University's policy has been consistent.\n"When you get a lawyer trying to represent his case, you are going to deal with their interpretation of the facts," McKaig said. "What a lawyer or an advocate does is suggest that his position is correct and somebody else\'s is wrong. Dunn Meadow has been our designated free speech area since 1962, and if you ask just about every student that has been here since 1962 if a protest is going on, if it's big, they'll say it's in Dunn Meadow."\nRecently about 10,000 students received a pamphlet in the mail from Life Dynamics, a pro-life group based in Denton, Texas. The pamphlet included a picture of an aborted fetus. The picture was in the brochure was labeled as being from the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. \nMark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics, said the mailing was sent out before the hearing and was not necessarily in support of GAP.\n"We learned that there is a conflict going on between another pro-life organization where the administration was denying their free speech right to show pictures of aborted babies on campus and to engage in conversations with the students about abortion," Crutcher said. "So the decision was made to use direct mail, which is the one thing they can't stop, to deliver the same message."\nCunningham said he expects GAP's fight with IU will cause other pro-life groups to try to take their message to the University community.\n"As word is spreading within the pro-life community that this administration is treating pro-lifers unfairly, more and more will begin to focus on IU," he said.\nJonathon Schuster, a sophomore, was one of the students who received the mailing, which he called "targeted junk mail."\n"It was invasive and a blatant breach of my right to privacy," Schuster said. "The horrific, gruesome display of a dead fetus was uncalled for, and the way in which it was sent was uncalled for"