Judge delays ruling, urges settlement

After an all-day hearing Tuesday, representatives from IU and the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform have agreed to meet next week to try to settle the lawsuit filed by the Genocide Awareness Project. \nU.S. District Court Judge Richard Young heard both sides Tuesday at a preliminary injunction hearing in Indianapolis. Young delayed a final ruling on the case until Dec. 1, when post-hearing briefs from each side are due. He also urged both sides to come to an agreement before then.\n"It would be in your interests to sit down and talk," Young told the courtroom after the hearing. "I would suggest that if there are other areas on campus which have not been discussed yet, then you do that."\nThe Center for Bio-Ethical Reform filed a civil rights lawsuit against IU in September after the University restricted the display of the Center's Genocide Awareness Project. GAP is comprised of 25 six-by-13-foot photo murals, weighing 50 pounds each and surrounded by 45 police-style steel crowd control barricades. \nThe Center wanted to display GAP in the field behind Woodburn Hall, but IU asked that it instead use Dunn Meadow, the designated area for free speech activity on campus. Students for Life and ConneXion filed the proper paperwork to have GAP in Dunn Meadow in April, but then the Center asked for the display location to be changed. That visit to IU in April and one planned this week were canceled.\nGregg Cunningham, director of the Center, said he will meet with Kipley Drew, University associate counsel, next week to discuss alternative solutions to end the dispute out of court.\n"After a full day of testimony and arguments, the judge kind of summarized the whole thing by saying that both sides made good arguments and that he thinks the issue can be settled," Cunningham said. "I remain confident that this case can be settled."\nDuring Tuesday's hearing, Cunningham, Dean of Students Richard McKaig, Assistant Dean of Students Jim Gibson and IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger were among the witnesses to testify. \nThe main reasons Minger and Gibson gave for not allowing GAP by Woodburn Hall involved reports of violence and unrest at other college campuses where the Center has taken GAP. These schools included Ohio State University, University of Kansas, Michigan State University and University of British Columbia.\n"I was very concerned this might cause a disruption on our campus," Gibson said. \nRepresentatives from other schools told Gibson that GAP "created an environment where violence did occur," he said.\nBut Cunningham denied that GAP ever visited several of those schools, leading to more debate between the two sides. Lead University counsel Jan Carroll countered by presenting a newspaper article from British Columbia about GAP visiting the University there.\nDrew, who also testified, said GAP was less than cooperative in negotiations.\n"We did discuss various options," Drew said. "We really bent over backwards to try and accommodate them, to no avail."\nDuring Drew's testimony, she said Cunningham threatened her in a March 27 telephone conversation. "He informed me that we would find an alternative to Dunn Meadow or we would have chaos," Drew said.\nBefore the judge's decision, Cunningham told the IDS that if GAP was denied its request to use Dunn Meadow, the Center would use more long-term and invasive ways of getting its message to IU students. \nHe said these methods included mounting the images on the sides of trucks to be driven through campus and distributing the images through mass mailings, with the words "Blame IU President Myles Brand" written next to a picture of an aborted fetus.\nCunningham said he will try to contact students, faculty and staff to get suggestions of alternate locations for the GAP display. He also said if a legal decision is eventually made and the Center loses, it will file an appeal.