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Tuesday, Jan. 21
The Indiana Daily Student

campus student life

IUDC protest interrupts BFC meeting, start of ‘escalation’ after its demands weren’t met

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Standing in the back of Presidents Hall, about a dozen people held pro-Palestinian signs at the Bloomington Faculty Council meeting Tuesday. Some interrupted the meeting. 

The first interruption came as a protester, about 12 minutes into the meeting, yelled at Provost Rahul Shrivastav, calling on him to resign.  

“Yesterday was the deadline the IU Divestment Coalition set for you to respond to our demands,” they shouted.  

IUDC is demanding the resignation of Shrivastav, IU President Pamela Whitten and IU Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty. It wants the university to divest from groups “complicit in Israeli apartheid and genocide” and its partnership with Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division. 

It also wants the university to create and fund a Middle Eastern culture center and Muslim culture center. All the organization’s demands are listed on its petition. 

The organization threatened to “escalate” in an Instagram post Nov. 17 unless IU met its demands by Monday, the first day of the spring semester classes. Two students previously interrupted the Board of Trustees meeting in Fort Wayne in November, calling for President Pamela Whitten and the board to “listen to students and cut all ties to genocide.” 

An audience member echoed the first protester, yelling “resign!” Soon after, another protester interrupted the meeting. Both protesters who had interrupted the meeting were escorted out.  

IU Police Department Public Information Officer Hannah Skibba said in an email its officers “assisted university officials in identifying two individuals that were asked to leave the Bloomington Faculty Council meeting after they became disruptive.” 

Before the meeting, Palestinian flags and some messages, including “divest” and “disclose,” were spray painted on snow in Dunn Meadow and around Sample Gates. 

Signs held up in the meeting displayed similar messages to the ones written in the snow.  

"I don’t want to live in a world where bombing children is called ‘self-defense’,” one read.  

Following the interruptions, David McDonald, an associate professor at the College of Arts and Sciences, acknowledged the protestors during the question and comment period of the meeting. 

“I noticed we have folks from the IU Divestment Coalition here. My question is: have you met with any of the students?” he asked Shrivastav. “And if not, why not?”  

Shrivastav responded stating that he has not met with the IUDC because he works with “recognized student entities.” However, he mentioned that “these issues have come up” with students he has met with in the past.  

48 minutes in, the remaining protesters raised their signs higher as they walked out, interrupting the meeting once more and ending the demonstration as one person yelled “free Palestine.” 

More than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the Israel-Hamas War, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between combatant and civilian. However, the ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children. 

The war began after the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.  

It's also prompted protests on IU’s campus since the war started, including a 100-day encampment that saw more than 50 arrests.  

IUDC spokesperson and organizer Bryce Greene said they planned on continuing the protests throughout the semester if their demands were not met. 

“We do plan on continuing to increase organizing efforts, will continue to do more action as the situation depends,” he said. 

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