The Council on American Islamic Relations named Indiana University a “hostile campus” for Muslim, Palestinian and Arab students. The designation was announced Feb. 6, after an investigation from CAIR looking at news articles, campus events, administrative actions and reports from students. The press release cites the university’s “targeting of anti-genocide students, faculty, and staff advocating for Palestinian human rights.”
“With the designations we sincerely hope that the administrators, the President, look at their policies and review all of the accusations and investigation, all the egregious events that happened and, you know, review everything that we investigated,” CAIR Research and Advocacy Specialist Maryam Hasan said. “You know, to make a better environment for the students, a campus environment that allows students to enjoy academic freedom.”
CAIR, a non-profit advocacy group, which says it is “America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization.” The hostile campus campaign started in August 2024 to combat Islamophobic discrimination on college campuses and a lack of accountable action in US universities, according to CAIR Research and Advocacy Manager Farah Afify. There are currently 16 schools on the list.
Afify said she wants students to know their concerns are valid and that organizations like CAIR will stand up for them.
“I think it can be so difficult at a time like this, especially when the university you're attending, the university that is intended to be a safe and comfortable space for you to engage with other students, for you to engage with your research, is treating you in this way, is calling police on you, is treating you as if you are an enemy instead of a student at that university,” she said.
IU did not respond to two Indiana Daily Student requests for a statement.
The university has faced backlash for numerous events and decisions since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.
Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty suspended tenured IU professor Abdulkader Sinno for the spring and summer 2024 terms on Dec. 15, 2023, when he attempted to reserve a room for a Palestine Solidarity Committee event. Docherty alleged Sinno falsely represented the event as an academic event when making the reservation.
IU graduate student and PSC organizer, Bryce Greene voiced support for CAIR’s designation on behalf of the PSC in a text to the IDS.
“CAIR's designation is entirely consistent with our experience as organizers here. We've been on the receiving end of discrimination, suppression and outright physical violence all for the act of speaking out in support of Palestine,” Greene said.
The IU Faculty Board of Review said the suspension violated IU policy by not first issuing the matter to the Faculty Misconduct Review Committee, where Sinno would have the opportunity to defend himself at a hearing of his colleagues. Many faculty members denounced the decision.
The administration further angered students and faculty when it canceled Palestinian artist Samia Halaby’s exhibit in a two-sentence email to the artist Dec. 20, 2024. The university cited Halaby’s pro-Palestinian posts and safety concerns. The exhibit had been planned for three years. A petition demanding the university reinstate the exhibit garnered over 9,000 signatures.
Faculty passed a no confidence vote in April 2024 of IU President Pamela Whitten, Provost Rahul Shrivastav and Docherty. Later in April, the pro-Palestinian encampment organized by the IU Divestment Coalition began in Dunn Meadow. The night before the encampment, an ad hoc committee changed IU policy to disallow tents and require that structures be preapproved by the university. Indiana State Police were sent in to clear the encampment, and 57 people were arrested. 45 of those were faculty, staff, students and admitted students.
Protect IU organizer and IU professor Ben Robinson was pleased to see the attention to the administration’s actions.
“You know CAIR’s doing this serious work and they're finding that IU is a deeply problematic campus, and a finding like that from a representative, an organization representing a community, you know, such a respected organization representing a community, I mean that demands attention,” Robinson said.
He was arrested during the encampment and helped organize Protect IU’s Sunday night vigils during the fall 2024 semester in protest of the university’s new Expressive Activity Policy. The policy, which prohibits protesting and peaceful assembly outside the hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., among other rules, was created July 29, 2024, four days before the encampment was cleared. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is currently suing the policy and IU for a violation of first amendment rights. Dunn Meadow was subsequently fenced off for 136 days in the fall semester for repairs after the encampment.
Robinson criticized the administration’s lack of commitment to its mission of student well-being and education, pointing to their perceived apathy toward a designation like this.
“It would find this newsworthy precisely because it would be something they would want to act on to improve,” Robinson said. “But you know, apparently they don't actually care about improving that finding of hostility on campus.”
