Tents banned for campers at Assembly Hall

Any attempt to occupy Assembly Hall in anticipation of No. 1 Kentucky heading to Bloomington on Saturday has ended due to an IU campus policy.

Early Tuesday afternoon, a group of about six or seven students set up a tent along the southeast corner of Assembly Hall in the line of the general admission entrance for student season ticket holders.

Graduate student Ryan Huffman was one of the students standing near his broken-down tent Tuesday evening. Huffman arrived with friends at about 2:30 p.m., but less than two hours after setting up their tent, IU police informed them of the campus policy.

“IUPD shows up and tells us that we need to take our tent down and actually said they might take our chairs before it’s all said and done,” Huffman said.

Later in the evening, IUPD informed the group tents would not be allowed for the entire week, but they could still have their chairs. Even without its tent, the group said it has elected to stick it out for the remainder of the week.

Associate Vice President for University Communications Mark Land confirmed what the campers had been told by IUPD on Tuesday.

“IUPD did ask students to remove tents that had been set up near Assembly Hall this evening because University policy does not allow for structures such as tents to remain up overnight,” Land said in an email. “We share the students’ enthusiasm for this Saturday’s basketball game, and students are certainly free to stand in line to wait for the chance to get tickets for the game, but tents or other similar structures are not allowed overnight.”

Last year, students camped out prior to the Purdue game in February and were not asked to remove their tent.

A group of six girls camped out 36 hours before the Purdue game and recieved of hot chocolate and space warmers from athletic secretaries, along with pizza from IU Coach Tom Crean.

“We decided on it back in October before we knew what our record would be or what the weather would be,” senior Megan Magiera said. “By the time it came around, we were like, ‘We can’t back down now.’”

Joining Magiera in the group was fellow senior Holly Koski. Both the girls said they were not approached by IUPD during the 36-hour stay.   

“It was actually quite opposite,” Koski said. “They were really excited that we were there, and we were showing support by showing early. We never saw security, IUPD, Assembly Hall staff, anything like that.”

Huffman and the group made a poster that read “Camp Crean” and received a visit from Assistant Coach Tim Buckley on Tuesday.

The group was planning on waiting until Thursday to camp out, but late Monday night they decided to make the move the following day.

“We have GA tickets, so we want to get in there first and get in the front row,” Huffman said. “Obviously, with the bigger student section this year, you aren’t getting as many tickets down there. This was our really only good game so we said, ‘To hell with it, we are going to come and camp out.’”