8:10 p.m. outside Memorial Stadium
As thousands of students and their families watched the undergraduate commencement ceremony in Memorial Stadium, around 30 protesters circled outside the facility. The group included about a dozen IU graduates wearing commencement robes and red stoles, who had walked out in protest during commencement.
The group circled Memorial Stadium one time before walking toward the intersection of 17th Street and Woodlawn Avenue. As they walked, they chanted phrases including “Free, free Palestine” and “Disclose, divest. We will not stop. We will not rest.”
Above the stadium, two planes with banners circled in the sky. One plane pulled a banner reading “Let Gaza Live,” while the other had a banner reading “Divest Now — Whitten Resign.”
They passed a truck with screens showing President Joe Biden’s face and the message “#GenocideJoe Has Got To Go.” Biden has faced sharp criticism for his support for Israel and the United States’ role in the Israel-Hamas War.
After the truck made a few laps through the parking lot, IU Police Department officers pulled it over and searched the vehicle. The driver said officers told him the “command center” had asked them to pull him over but gave no other details as to why they wanted to search the truck. He said he complied because his brothers are cops, and he didn’t want to cause any issues.
The driver said he was from Detroit and had come to support the pro-Palestinian protesters at the invitation of a friend.
A graduate wears a cap with a Palestinian flag and the word "Divest" May 4, 2024, outside Memorial Stadium. As thousands of students and their families watched the undergraduate commencement ceremony in Memorial Stadium, around 30 protesters circled outside the facility.
An IU Police Department cruiser pulls over a truck with screens showing President Joe Biden's face and the message "#GenocideJoe Has Got To Go." After the truck made a few laps through the parking lot, IUPD officers pulled it over and searched the vehicle.
7:45 p.m. inside Memorial Stadium
IU President Pamela Whitten took to Memorial Stadium's main stage to give opening remarks at the undergraduate commencement ceremony. Her remarks were drowned out by a chorus of cheers and boos from the crowd of thousands, including guests in the bleachers and graduating students on the floor level.
Throughout the night, whenever Whitten began to speak, a smattering of boos rang out in the crowd. Some graduating students in the crowd hurled expletives toward the stage during her speeches.
At 7:51 p.m., a group of students in caps, gowns and keffiyehs walked toward the back of the stadium and left through the bleachers. Several venue staffers approached the group, but were shrugged off.
As they left, the group chanted “Free, free Palestine” toward Whitten. Some guests in the bleachers started shouting back at them.
Several individuals followed shortly behind the group. Across the ceremony, three or four distinct groups of students walked out of the stadium. IDS reporters on the scene didn’t observe any faculty members walk out of commencement.
The IU Divestment Coalition and the Palestine Solidarity Committee called for students and faculty to walk out of graduation Saturday and about 40 students did.
The ceremony concluded at 8:33, with a crowd of thousands of now graduated alumni throwing their tasseled caps in the air as fireworks burst over the stadium.
7:25 p.m. at Dunn Meadow
While the graduation ceremony continues at IU’s Memorial Stadium, protesters continue their stay at the Dunn Meadow encampment. As the sun began to set, many sit on the sidewalk up the hill or in the grass while others pass a volleyball.
A plane passed overhead reading, “Let Gaza Live,” along with the Palestinian flag, flying in the direction of Memorial Stadium.
At its sight, the protesters from below cheered and clapped.
A plane pulling a banner reading "Long Live Gaza," is pictured flying over Dunn Meadow May 4, 2024. The plane flew by while graduation was underway at Memorial Stadium.
2 p.m. in Dunn Meadow
The protesters began to set up signs and chairs for the encampment's "alternative graduation." Roughly 20 graduates were celebrated at the event, attended by about 80 total people, which included speeches from suspended IU professor Abdulkader Sinno and Germanic studies professor Ben Robinson.
Robinson was arrested and temporarily banned from campus April 25. Robinson’s ban has been paused by the university while his appeal is processed.
A stage was formed for the graduates by two wooden planks set on the grass next to each other. Behind it were signs that read, “Free Palestine,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and signs with the Palestinian flag painted on them.
IU professors and graduating students put handprints on a tapestry in the shape of the Palestinian flag on May 4, 2024. The "Alternative Graduation" was hosted in Dunn Meadow as a part of the IU Divestment Coalition's encampment.
In their speeches, Sinno and Robinson encouraged students to use their voices to spread awareness about the conflict in Gaza and gave congratulations to the graduating students. In another speech, IU professor Barbara Dennis also spoke about the power of education.
“We must all, in some way, hold ourselves accountable,” she said. “Your machine gun in life is education.”
Some of the graduating students also spoke to the crowd, expressing their concerns for Gaza and sharing their want to be in solidarity with Palestinians. Afterwards, each of the graduates dipped their hands into bins filled with green, red or black paint. The graduates placed their painted hands on a large white tapestry hung by the stage to make the Palestinian flag.
Protesters then marched from the encampment to Sample Gates, chanting “America’s a terrorist state,” and other chants. Upon their return to Dunn Meadow, poppyseeds, which stand as symbols of solidarity to Palestinians, were passed to the graduates to plant.
At the end of the ceremony, protesters gathered for food and conversation.
