Background: On Thursday, April 25 the IU administration summoned the Indiana State Police (ISP) to enforce an order it had formulated the night before requiring that any structures or signs set up at any time on the Bloomington campus Dunn Meadow Assembly Ground receive prior clearance. The order was in violation of longstanding campus policy. It was issued in anticipation of a major Assembly Ground demonstration scheduled to begin the morning of the 25th, protesting the Gaza War, demanding that IU divest from securities connected to Israel and cease partnerships with US Department of Defense entities. The ISP enforced the order by marching on the protest in full riot gear and arresting over thirty students and faculty members. A similar scene ensued two days later with more arrests. Nothing like this had previously occurred in IU’s 204-year history.

In late June the administration announced that a new policy governing free speech at IU would be adopted August 1 and gave faculty, students, and staff three weeks to provide feedback to a policy draft. The responses were extensive and overwhelmingly negative, but the Board of Trustees adopted the revised policy on July 29. The vote was 6-3, the first major split in a Board vote in many years. 

Within an hour of the vote, faculty received an email notice from the IU General Counsel announcing the new policy. The following day, “IU Today,” the administration’s daily email bulletin, announced: “Trustees approve policy strengthening IU’s commitment to free speech.” The IU website added a banner notice of the policy at the top of the home page. Large signs announcing the policy were installed around campus, all emphasizing IU’s commitment to defending freedom of speech. Paid advertisements were placed in the local newspaper. And the administration posted a professionally produced animated video, narrated with warm friendliness, celebrating the new policy’s valuation of free speech while primarily detailing its many restrictions.  

The IU-Bloomington homepage made the new policy a banner headline

Signs at Dunn Meadow and at the IU Swimming Pool

Screenshot of an advertisement in the online Bloomington Herald-Times (disclaimer enlarged below)

Screenshot from IU’s upbeat video on the new Expressive Activity Policy.

What the voiceover script actually says: 
"Members of the IU community who want to invite speakers on any subject need to
register their event and follow the procedures outlined in IU’s event management policies."

Our Series on IU’s New Policy on “Expressive Activity”: The Executive Committee of the Bloomington chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) believes that what happened in Dunn Meadow in April and the IU administration’s imposition of new policy are hallmarks of dramatic changes underway at IU. These changes are transforming Bloomington from a campus famous for its valuation of free speech and academic freedom–and for its unusually strong commitment to shared governance in which faculty play a central role–to something thoroughly different: a corporate university, prioritizing order over academic freedom and workforce development over intellectual diversity and creativity. 

The barrage of propagandistic advertising that presents the abrupt curtailment of free speech as “free speech protection” is one outward manifestation of this change. The ongoing threats of sanctions against faculty and students for peaceful protests against the new policy are another. The implications of these changes include fundamental threats to the security and rewards of academic careers, threats that we believe should concern all faculty and that call for increased faculty community, collegiality, and action.

The AAUP Executive Committee plans to add a new page to this series every few days, with corresponding flyers posted on campus announcing each page. The new policy—officially called “UA-10”—requires that every such flyer undergo a pre-approval process with the IU Office of Capital Planning, so we won’t have full control over that timetable. Our preliminary plans—which we may modify—are to discuss topics such as the following (linked where pages have been created):

#1 Does IU's New “Expressive Activity” Policy Strengthen IU's Commitment to Free Speech? (27 September 2024)

#2 Why Are Colleagues and Students Meeting by Candlelight at the Sample Gates Being Threatened with Sanctions? (27 September 2024)

Projected (subject to change)

#3 Why Has the Foundation for Individual Rights (FIRE) Ranked IU America's Second-Worst Public University on Free Speech?

#4 What Is the ACLU Lawsuit Challenging the New Expressive Activity Policy?

Originally posted September 27, 2024

Alterations and updates will be noted below