For more recent coverage of the encampment, check out LIVE UPDATES: Scenes from day 9 of Gaza encampment, campus protests
1 a.m. at Dunn Meadow
Protesters at the encampment divided into work groups to collect trash and set up sleeping areas among several tents. Many are planning to camp out for the night. IUPD cars and cars honking in support pass by on Seventh Street.
The IDS will continue to observe and report on developments at the encampment throughout the night.
9 p.m. at Dunn Meadow
People waving Palestinian flags from the encampment and people holding and clad in Israeli flags atop the hill on the sidewalk by Seventh Street continued to chant and shout at each other. No physical confrontations have taken place.
A group outside the Chabad House declined to comment on the protests. However, they added that they wanted to see the hostages in Gaza brought home. One person said Hamas took his cousin hostage into Gaza in the Oct. 7 attack, another said he had a friend taken.
Around 250 hostages were taken in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack, and more than 100 have since been released. Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages and the remains of around 30 people, according to the Associated Press.
7:13 p.m.
The IU Divestment Coalition said on Telegram they plan to be in Dunn Meadow all weekend and into next week.
On Thursday, a member of the coalition told the IDS they plan on staying until the end of the school year.
4:40 p.m. inside the Dunn Meadow encampment
Protesters, in a circle surrounding the encampment, unlinked their arms but said they would relink if police return. Inside the encampment, there was food, medical supplies, tents and a pile of backpacks.
Medics were present inside the encampment. One told the IDS they haven’t treated anything other than cuts so far — another said they were using rubbing alcohol to treat abrasions from clapping. The medic said they were expecting injuries in the case that police clash with protesters.
4:37 p.m. on sidewalk overlooking Dunn Meadow
Two men stood on the sidewalk of Seventh Street above Dunn Meadow. One waved a “thin blue line” flag, and the other had a version of the American flag with the initials “PB” in the left corner.
Several passers-by asked if the latter was associated with Proud Boys. The man waving the flag said that “PB” was associated with a nutritional supplement company.
The man with the pro-police flag wore a shirt that read “I am 1776% sure no one will be taking my guns.”
Two protesters asked the men why they were there. They responded that they opposed Hamas and supported the U.S.
After a conversation, the man with the pro-police flag shook hands with the pro-Palestinian protesters.
4:28 p.m. at Franklin Hall
Protesters announced they were surrounded by police and needed to return to Dunn Meadow immediately. At least three Indiana State Police officers and several IU Police stood behind Franklin Hall near Dunn Meadow, the side opposite the protesters outside the Media School.
At least seven ISP police cars were parked on brick paths near Dunn Meadow.
4:12 p.m. at Franklin Hall
Protesters directly addressed IU Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav in their chants. Police came outside and told protesters to leave Franklin Hall's landing and clear the area in front of the door. Protesters cleared the area in front of the door and let people attending the event inside of the building.
4:08 p.m.
Mark Bode, executive director of media relations at IU, sent a statement to the IDS in response to an inquiry about arrested students and faculty who were temporarily banned from campus.
“We encourage affected faculty and students to engage in the appeals process by contacting IUPD,” the statement read. “Trespass ban notices will be suspended during the appeals process in nearly all cases. This will allow these students and faculty to complete the semester.”
3:56 p.m. at Franklin Hall
Protesters from the Dunn Meadow encampment moved to rally outside Franklin Hall. Four IUPD officers stood inside as demonstrators chanted outside.
The College of Arts of Sciences Executive Dean's Advisory Board dinner is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. IU Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav is scheduled to recognize retiring faculty, according to an event program.
1:50 p.m. at Dunn Meadow
Police made first contact with protesters today nearly five hours after demonstrations officially began around 10:00
Two Indiana State Police troopers approached the encampment before being stopped by protesters holding wooden shields painted with the design of the Palestinian flag.
Most of the remaining protesters linked arms and formed a tight circle around the tent encampment. In many spots,, the line was two or three layers of people thick.
One officer spoke with Bryce Greene, graduate adviser of the IU Palestine Solidarity Committee, who also helped organize the encampment.
“We don’t want what happened yesterday to happen again today,” the officer said.
“We don’t think what happened yesterday had to happen,” Greene responded.
The two officers walked off in the direction of Kirkwood Avenue after about five minutes. The protesters remained in a circle, arms linked, for another half-hour. Leaders of the protest stood in the middle of the circle, leading chants through their megaphones.
“We will stand firm,” PSC president Aidan Khamis, said to the crowd.
1:30 p.m. at Dunn Meadow
A protester stood with their upper body sticking out of a car window as it drove by Dunn Meadow on Seventh Street. Protesters in the meadow cheered as they waved a black and red keffiyeh — a traditional headdress fashioned from cloth worn in parts of the Middle East — in the air.
The car’s passenger was an IU student who was arrested yesterday for criminal trespass.
It didn’t stop them from finding a way to show support.
A group from the meadow brought her a megaphone. The car stopped at a stop sign in direct view of the main encampment. Through the megaphone, the student yelled, “free Palestine!”
11:48 a.m. at Dunn Meadow
An IUPD officer handed out flyers detailing that overnight camping and unapproved temporary or permanent structures are prohibited. The flyers said to be respectful of IU’s First Amendment policy and the student code of conduct.
It also said people knowingly violating and interfering with the possession or use of IU property without consent could be arrested and prosecuted for criminal trespass. Those arrested yesterday were all charged with criminal trespass.
The Flyers also said that Demonstration Response Safety Team members are onsite to provide assistance.
Demonstrators urged each other not to take the flyers from police.
11:10 a.m.
In a Friday morning email to faculty obtained by the IDS, the executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Rick Van Kooten, expressed “profound concern” for students and faculty arrested for criminal trespass after protesting in Dunn Meadow on Thursday, who were also temporarily banned from campus. He said he expressed his concern to IU leadership last night and this morning.
“I will also be convening a meeting of the College's Chairs and Directors early next week to further discuss this urgent matter impacting our campus,” he wrote.
According to the email, there will be an appeal process for banned faculty and students.
11 a.m. across the street from Bryan Hall
Jessica McDonald, a local and independently contracted therapist and wife of David McDonald, an IU professor who was arrested yesterday, was told of her husband’s arrest by her brother while in a session with a client. At the faculty protest, she and David stood on the street across from Bryan Hall since David is banned from all IU properties for a year following his arrest.
Jessica and other local therapists are planning to create a large group of available therapists for protesters who were arrested April 25 in Dunn meadow. Jessica said she works in trauma therapy, specifically eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy.
“It's one of the gold standards for trauma care,” she said. “It just helps them reprocess these memories, these experiences, in a way that's more adaptive, so that their functioning isn’t impaired. “
For now, they are using bloomington.therapy@gmail.com as a contact source for off-campus, independent, trauma therapy for arrested protestors. Depending on how large of a group of therapists they can provide, they will open this resource up to protesters who were not arrested.
10:50 a.m. across the street from Bryan Hall
Barbara Dennis, a professor in the School of Education, was arrested April 25 in Dunn Meadow, and was in attendance at the faculty protest April 26. Her trespass warning was incorrectly dated and says she is banned from campus from yesterday until yesterday, while everyone else is banned for one year. She spoke multiple times about her experience at the protest and in the jail.
Dennis voluntarily stayed at the jail until the last of the students left. While leaving, she saw the mother of one of the arrested protestors, who was one of her past students at IU. During the mother’s time at IU, she would bring her baby to class and Dennis held her. That baby, now an adult, was among one of the last to leave the jail after being arrested at the protest April 25.
“There was this moment where I was teaching, and this student was a baby, and I was entrusted with holding her while I was teaching,” she said. “And then here I was in a jail, also entrusted with making sure that she was okay.”
Dennis said instead of “late night, scandalous meetings” — referring to last night’s “Ad Hoc Committee” meeting to change IU policy — this university is about the “relationships and connections.”
That same protestor Dennis was talking about was threatened with a night in jail and a shower if she did not provide her social security number. Dennis said only some of the arrested were asked to provide their social security number, but a significant number were released without having to provide it.
“The police then threatened her and said ‘you're going to have to spend the night, get the shower ready. We’re going to shower her.’ And this is a bunch of male police saying this to a female student,” Dennis said.
Dennis said she believes the most important priority is helping the students who could not return to their dorm rooms after being banned from campus. The trespass warning on paper comes from IUPD, yet the Monroe County Sheriff Department handed it to the arrested. They were told if they stepped on any IU property within the next year, they could either be charged with a misdemeanor or level 6 felony.
“If they couldn't get to their toothbrush or their dorm room or anything, what are they supposed to do? We need to figure out a way to get those students help,” Dennis said.
10:45 a.m. across the street from Byran Hall
Police arrested David McDonald, chair of the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology a the encampment Thursday in Dunn Meadow. He attended the faculty protest Friday from across the street from Bryan Hall . David was banned from IU properties following his arrest and said he will conduct students’ exam defenses over zoom.
When David noticed yesterday’s protest, he spoke with the protesters and police before leaving to teach a class. When he came back to check on the protesters, State Troopers had been called in and he joined the students. He stood between the line of State Troopers and the line of students in order to deescalate the situation.
David said IUPD acted responsibly, and the Indiana State Troopers were the ones who acted brutally.
“I was begging the troopers to pull back, that this was just speech,” he said. “No one was being violent. There was no damage to property, no vandalism.”
David said he repeatedly asked troopers to leave students alone, but said an officer told him they had orders to clear Dunn Meadow.
“They pushed into us, they swung their batons at us,” he said “I was then locked arms with the other students. I took probably six blows to the chest from two different troopers’ metal batons. I was knocked to the ground four times.”
He said he was eventually pushed on top of a tent full of people. The troopers then held him to the ground using their shields, David said.
“I got the air knocked out of me,” he said. “I couldn’t breathe.”
An IUPD officer then restrained and arrested him.
“At no point in time was I or any of the students that I was with, violent or aggressive towards the troopers,” David said. “The troopers, in fact, were aggressive and violent towards us.”
David was released at 10 p.m. Thursday from the Monroe County Jail. He said many colleagues, students and administrators messaged him with support. Some told him they would work to try to have the charges rescinded, but he has not heard of anything since then.
“Indiana University is a very special place and it's unfortunate that our administrators are not the ones upholding its great reputation, but rather our students,” he said. “Our students are the ones that are out there making Indiana University great by challenging this world, by exercising their rights and by demanding a better place. I'm very proud of our students.”
David said faculty participation in the protest made him feel hopeful, but it’s not yet enough. He’d like to see IU become part of a “much larger movement where we are able to reclaim this university’s core values and reestablish its relationship with its students and its academic mission.”
10 a.m. outside Bryan Hall
Over 100 Indiana University faculty gather outside Bryan Hall to protest the university’s arrest of student protesters.
Alex Lichtenstein, a professor in IU’s Department of American Studies, stands on the steps with a black megaphone and reads the 1969 policy allowing the use of temporary structures in Dunn Meadow.
IU changed the policy on April 24. The new policy forbids the use of permanent or temporary structures without the approval by the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Life and University Events.
Lichtenstein reads demands for IU’s administration.
“As faculty, I think we can put forth a handful of immediate demands,” he said.
His demands are for the administration to apologize for yesterday’s arrests, reinstate the 1969 policy, drop the charges against the arrested students, use IUPD to protect protestors and make “the Ad Hoc Committee” members resign.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly claimed Kirkwood Avenue had been partially blocked off by police.
