The IU Board of Trustees approved a new expressive activity policy to govern speech and protest across all IU campuses at a meeting Monday. The policy is available online.
The new policy will supersede any other existing expressive activity policies. It, among other things, limits expressive activity to the hours between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. every day, prohibits camping at any time of day, prohibits impeding vehicle and pedestrian traffic and building entrances and requires signs and temporary structures to be approved at least 10 days in advance by the university.
Violations of the policy may result in actions including, but not limited to, immediate trespass citation and/or suspension from campus.
It passed 6-3, with trustees Vivian Winston, Donna Spears and Kyle Seibert dissenting.
The policy is scheduled to take effect Thursday, nearly a month before the start of the fall semester.
A Palestinian flag stands amongst the tents of the encampment July 29, 2024 in Dunn Meadow. Earlier in the day the IU Board of Trustees passed a policy governing expressive activities on IU campus.
“Indiana University has a longstanding commitment to advancing free speech,” trustee chair Quinn Buckner said in an IU press release Monday. “In order for free speech for all to flourish, we needed to clarify our policies so people clearly understand the allowable time, manner and place for free expression. We can’t let one person or group’s expression infringe on the rights of others, disrupt learning experiences for our students or interrupt regular university business.”
General Counsel Anthony Prather, who presented the policy to the board, said he, two people from his office and an IU-Indianapolis McKinney School of Law clerk compared the policy to those at peer universities, including those in the Big Ten. Prather said they emailed 31 representatives from 22 university “stakeholder groups” on campus for responses and reviewed feedback from faculty and students. The feedback influenced several revisions in the final policy, he said.
One notable difference in the final policy was the prohibition of camping at any time of day; the draft only banned overnight camping.
“Your comments were well taken, and in some places really impactful, but most importantly, you were heard,” Prather said. “We committed to doing that, and I'm really comfortable that we absolutely gave the absolute opportunity for everybody to provide feedback to be heard.”
Bryce Greene, an organizer of the ongoing pro-Palestine encampment in Dunn Meadow, spoke to the board following the vote, disputing Prather’s claim of feedback being heard.
“Why do you hate students?” he said to the board. “No student that I’ve talked to was in favor of this policy. No faculty member I’ve talked to was in favor of this policy. Why does the Board of Trustees think that the voices of students and faculty do not matter?”
The board members did not acknowledge Greene’s questions.
Greene said after the meeting he expects the policy will be used to justify further arrests of protesters, like those that occurred April 25 and 27.
“It’s just one more example of the university not caring about what its students need,” Greene said. “This policy was clearly designed to attack student protesters and attack the people who have been expressing themselves for quite some time.”
A woman holds a sign outside the Board of Trustees meeting July 29, 2024, in the Showalter House in Bloomington. The protester’s sign was a sign that said “Caution: Expressive Activity.”
At the meeting, trustees Vivian Winston and Kyle Seibert, chair of the student relations committee, suggested amendments to the policy. These amendments included sections regarding the time constraint, enforcement of the policy and consequences of violating the policy.
Suggested policy amendments that failed
One of the amendments suggested by Seibert was to remove the time restriction of expressive activity between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. that the policy includes.
“I kind of came to the conclusion that I believe that it’s too restrictive,” he said to the board.
Seibert said prohibiting the activity of free speech or content protected by the First Amendment and or communicating by any lawful, verbal, written, audiovisual or electronic, during certain hours, could mean opening risk to more debate over time.
This amendment failed 6-3.
Another one of Seibert’s amendments was to decrease the number of days needed for approval of tents and structures from 10 to three. He said three days would still allow those who enforce this policy enough time to determine if the structures are disruptive to campus operations, while ten days was seen as an unnecessary amount of time for IU students and community members to follow.
This amendment failed 7-2.
During the voting roll call, Facilities and Auxiliaries Committee chair Donna Spears explained why she voted no. She said that even though 10 days does seem to be too much, three days seems too little.
Pro-Palestine protesters, as well as IU Police officers, stand along the back wall during a Board of Trustees meeting July 29, 2024, in the Showalter House in Bloomington. The Board of Trustees denied amendments suggested to the expressive activity policy during the meeting.
Winston also suggested two amendments.
One of the amendments she suggested had to do with a section of the policy about structures which reads:
“Should anyone attempt to prevent the removal of an unapproved structure, Indiana University’s Associate Vice President/Superintendent for Public Safety will make the determination with respect to the engagement of any additional resources necessary to remove an unapproved structure.”
She suggested the policy should add that the Indiana State Police should be a last resort to enforce the rules set out in the policy.
The motion to discuss the amendment received no second and therefore didn’t go to a vote.
The second amendment she suggested had to do with the sentence in the policy stating:
“Conduct reasonably believed to be in violation of the expressive activity policy may result in immediate action by the university, including but not limited to citation, trespass and/or interim suspension from campus.”
Winston instead wanted to change the wording from “immediate” to “within three days.” She stated that it seemed the “immediate” action of the university assumed that anyone given these sanctions are deemed guilty before proven innocent.
“I think that they’re being treated as guilty until proven innocent and that doesn’t go along with our law in the United States where you’re innocent until proven guilty,” she said.
Some members of the audience, including protesters from the pro-Palestine encampment, clapped and snapped in support of this amendment.
However, Spears suggested the word “may” softens the policy enough, stating that to give an extension of three days would allow too much time for different interpretations of the violation of the policy to take place. She further suggested that anyone standing in the perimeter of the event of what is seen as violating the policy, should be held accountable right away.
“You know, you are guilty. You’re standing there, you’re guilty,” she said.
IU Board of Trustees member Vivian Winston listens to fellow trustee Donna Spears during a meeting July 29, 2024, in the Showalter House in Bloomington. Winston had suggested two amendments to the policy which were not voted on.
After the discussion, the motion to discuss the amendment received no second and therefore was not voted on.
The new policy follows months of controversy over IU’s expressive activity regulations.
Controversy surrounding expressive activity policy enforcement and proposals
A protester wearing a shirt with the Palestinian flag gestures a thumbs down during the IU Board of Trustees vote on the proposed expressive activity policy July 29, 2024, in the Showalter House in Bloomington. The policy passed and will take effect Thursday.
On April 24, one day before the establishment of an ongoing encampment in support of Palestine in Dunn Meadow, IU administrators changed the then-expressive activity policy to prohibit temporary structures, including tents, without prior approval.
IU and Indiana State Police subsequently arrested 57 protesters at the encampment in Dunn Meadow for criminal trespass. Prosecutors later dropped all criminal trespass charges.
Last week, Cooley Law Firm released an independent report commissioned by IU of the arrests and events on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. One of the firm’s recommendations was for IU to adopt a new expressive activity policy.
Prior to its adoption, IU administration shared a draft of the policy in June to get feedback from IU community members.
It was shared by IU Student Government President Cooper Tinsley and IU-Bloomington Staff Council President Alison Sinadinos to IU students and staff, respectively. Each asked for feedback through surveys.
IUSG wrote in an Instagram story July 17 it did not endorse the policy, based on the survey results, discussion with student governance groups and the results of a Student Body Congress vote.
The American Association of University Professors Bloomington chapter criticized the IU administration and Board of Trustees for what they called a “hasty push for new regulations governing free speech on IU campuses” due to the limited feedback time on the draft in a July 7 press release.
Other students and faculty condemned the policy draft at a press conference in Dunn Meadow on Friday.
The group IU Faculty and Staff for Israel released a press release Thursday generally supporting the policy but suggested it should incorporate the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct. It also said the board should consider adopting a similar code of conduct for all IU employees and visitors. The final policy does not reference the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct.
