Independent review of protests on IU campus provides recommendations to school

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana University released the results of an independent review of the cease fire in Gaza protests on Dunn Meadow in April 2024 on Thursday.

The protests, which led to more than 50 arrests in Bloomington, was in response to the ongoing Israel and Hamas war.

Shortly before protests began, Indiana University implemented a new policy forbidding the creation of temporary or permanent structures without advanced approval.

The protests, which were eventually policed by the Indiana State Police, garnered attention around the state with visuals of riot gear and young adults protesting.

In the end of the protests, the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office decided to not file charges against those arrested.

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The review released on Thursday found the following:

The study completed an investigation of the incidents and gave the school the following findings:

• IU’s leadership balanced free speech, campus safety and regular university operations amidst a challenging and rapidly evolving situation.
• IU leadership’s decision to change the Dunn Meadow policy was made in good faith; however, doing so the night before the planned encampment caused a number of unintended negative consequences.
• IU has a decades-long history of inconsistently enforcing its policies, which has caused confusion and frustration and makes governance difficult.
• IU administrators repeatedly asked the protesters to remove the encampment structures and to continue the protest without them, but some protesters refused, and ultimately, using the Indiana State Police’s assistance was the safest option available to remove the encampment.
• IUPolice Department is a critical university-wide resource, but their understaffing causes a myriad of negative effects.

The study, completed by law firm Cooley, LLP provide the following recommendations:
Recommendation 1: IU should approve a new expressive activity policy.

Recommendation 2: To establish clearer and more consistent policies, the IU President should direct a review for gaps or inconsistences between university-wide and campus-specific policies and make recommendations to the Board of Trustees on necessary changes.

Recommendation 3: IU should implement adequate training and communication about its policies and appropriate audit procedures to ensure the consistent application of policies.

Recommendation 4: IU should establish a plan for implementing any new policy related to expressive activity.

Recommendation 4.1: IU should clearly communicate this plan to relevant stakeholders and set expectations regarding ISP’s involvement.

Recommendation 4.2: IU should impose predictable and consistent
conduct consequences for violating any new policy.

Recommendation 5: IU should increase funding to IUPD in order to hire and retain more officers and bolster existing training and technological capacity.

Recommendation 6: IU should consider utilizing campus-wide communications to alert the IU community of encampments or other large scale or disruptive protests.

Recommendation 7: IU should consider adopting a policy of not issuing official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the University’s core functions.

Recommendation 8: IU should improve communications involving critical constituencies on campus.