Center for Bio-Ethical Reform seeks settlement

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform plans to file a motion with the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis to request a settlement conference to come to a compromise in a civil rights lawsuit the center filed against IU earlier this year. The suit was filed after the University restricted the center from setting up the Genocide Awareness Project, a display of images depicting aborted fetuses, in the area behind Woodburn Hall. \nAt the Oct. 4 hearing, Judge Richard Young delayed a final ruling until Dec.1 and urged the two parties to come to a compromise before the deadline. Kiply Drew, associate University counsel, and Gregg Cunningham, director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, spoke in a phone conversation about a week after the hearing and were unable to finalize an agreement. \nThe center is preparing the motion for the settlement conference, during which the judge would try to facilitate an agreement between the two parties, Cunningham said.\n"The University began that meeting by ending the meeting," he said. "Now it's time to get the judge involved in supervising a settlement conference so the judge can see exactly what the position of the University is."\nDrew, who said she had heard "through the grapevine" about the center's plans, declined to comment on the center's action until she obtained a copy of the motion.\n"I want to wait and see what the motion says," she said. \nCunningham said the center decided to request the settlement conference to find an alternative both parties are happy with, rather than waiting for the judge to rule completely for or against one side. \n"The whole idea of a compromise is to come up with a solution that isn't fully acceptable to everyone," he said. "We'll give up our desire to go to the Woodburn Hall area, and we're asking them to give up their desire to have us go to Dunn Meadow."\nOne of the advantages of a settlement conference is a greater willingness to find a solution from both parties, said Cunningham, who is also a lawyer. \nAs a result of the center's lawsuit, Cunningham said the University is requiring other groups to hold gatherings or displays at Dunn Meadow. Cunningham said research done by the center has shown this was not the case in the past, although he declined to mention specific groups that held demonstrations elsewhere. \nCunningham said witnesses at the hearing, including Drew and Dean of Students Richard McKaig, admitted displays had taken place outside Dunn Meadow in the past.\n"The University is making up the policy as they go along," he said. "The University is just sort of deciding willy-nilly who goes to Dunn Meadow and who doesn't. When we caught them, their response was, in essence, to force everybody into Dunn Meadow. As a result, First Amendment rights at IU are going to take a major hit."\nMcKaig said the Dunn Meadow area is and has been the University's designated free speech area. McKaig said Cunningham might be speaking of marches, such as the one to recognize Take Back the Night, in claiming the University has permitted demonstrations to take place outside Dunn Meadow.\n"If there were questions asked (at the hearing) about those kinds of acts, we would have affirmed those occurred," he said. "I think everybody knows they have"