Indiana University - Revision history

Eric Rasmusen: /* April 28 */

2024-04-29T19:15:24Z

‎April 28

Eric Rasmusen: /* April 28 */

2024-04-29T02:23:33Z

‎April 28

Eric Rasmusen: /* Demonstration and Arrests of April 25, 2024 */

2024-04-28T21:18:44Z

‎Demonstration and Arrests of April 25, 2024

Eric Rasmusen at 21:16, 28 April 2024

2024-04-28T21:16:23Z

Eric Rasmusen: /* April 25 stories */

2024-04-28T20:19:26Z

‎April 25 stories

Eric Rasmusen: /* April 27 Stories */

2024-04-28T20:12:38Z

‎April 27 Stories

Eric Rasmusen: /* Other Universities */

2024-04-28T13:52:45Z

‎Other Universities

Eric Rasmusen: /* Personal Observations */

2024-04-28T02:42:31Z

‎Personal Observations

Eric Rasmusen: /* Other Universities */

2024-04-28T02:30:02Z

‎Other Universities

Eric Rasmusen: /* Other Universities */

2024-04-28T02:29:35Z

‎Other Universities

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:15, 29 April 2024
Line 35:		Line 35:
	*[https://iuhillel.org/our-staff IU Hillel staff]		*[https://iuhillel.org/our-staff IU Hillel staff]

		+
		+	==April 29==
		+	*[https://rasmusen.org/special/2024.04.29_Colin_Johnson_Whitten_letter.pdf BFC President Colin Johnson's letter to President Whitten.]
		+	"It has sometimes felt as if we have received nothing but time-consuming distractions and repeated blows to our sense of the institution’s near and long-term stability, although I am willing to admit that this may just be my sheer exhausting talking. Be that as it may, however, I am nevertheless convinced that the time has come for the Whitten administration to end."

	==April 28==		==April 28==

@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 ==April 28==
 *[https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/2024/04/28/serious-first-amendment-problem-iu-changed-policy-on-eve-of-protests/73468476007/ Herald Times discussion of the legal issues,] Boris Ladwig.
+*[https://twitter.com/erasmuse/status/1784769360088707121 My Tweet giving Professor McDonald's response] to the Vice Provost's invitation to a campus inclusion event three days after the Administration had him arrested and banned from campus.
 ==April 27 Stories==

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 *[https://indianapublicmedia.org/noonedition/national-elections-tensions-rise.php Indiana Public Media, noon Friday,] inreview with Prof. Steve Sanders on the law of the situation.
+* <A HREF="https://www.rasmusen.org/rasmapedia/index.php?title=Indiana_University  ">2024 Dunn Meadow Protest </A>
 *[https://twitter.com/iustvnews/status/1783917737623916605 Is yesterday's situation likely to repeat?]  No, they let the tents stay this time.
 *The [https://twitter.com/idsnews Indiana Daily Student] on Twitter.
-[https://www.rasmusen.org/rasmapedia/index.php?title=Indiana_University This Page]
+*[https://www.rasmusen.org/rasmapedia/index.php?title=Indiana_University This Page]
 ===Personal Observations===

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 *The [https://twitter.com/idsnews Indiana Daily Student] on Twitter.
 ===Personal Observations===
 *At the 10am rally in front of the administration building, I heard a good story. A woman professor was arrested and kept at the jail till about midnight, so about 9 hours. She was with a female student. The student's mother came to pick her up from jail. It turned out, the mother had been in the professor's class,  a generation before! And that the professor had actually held that student in her arms, when she was a baby.
+: I also heard that some of the students in jail were very scared, some weren't. I heard one story that someone had just been picking up some belonging of his girlfriend from a collapsed tent, and they arrested him. Some were charged with trespass, some with resisting the police.  Some were trying to defend the tents, but others were arrested too, it seems. Before the state police with automatic weapons showed up, someone from the university said that university policy meant the demonstrators had to leave.  The demonstrators  said the rules allowed them to be there. "I've done my research," said the official (a policeman?I don't know). "Then what's the policy?" said a demonstrator. The official couldn't answer.
-*    I also heard that some of the students in jail were very scared, some weren't. I heard one story that someone had just been picking up some belonging of his girlfriend from a collapsed tent, and they arrested him. Some were charged with trespass, some with resisting the police.  Some were trying to defend the tents, but others were arrested too, it seems. Before the state police with automatic weapons showed up, someone from the university said that university policy meant the demonstrators had to leave.  The demonstrators  said the rules allowed them to be there. "I've done my research," said the official (a policeman?I don't know). "Then what's the policy?" said a demonstrator. The official couldn't answer.
+:I arrived late at the 10 a.m. faculty-led rally, having been busy trying to let state  officials know what was going on, since I'm about the only Republican at the university (well, there are a dozen of us). They have recorded it, an organizer told me. At 11, people marched over to Dunn Meadow, for the student-organized rally. To my dismay, by the time we got there the organizers were already starting loud Palestine chants, and it looked like it was going to be just another pro-Hamas rally.   I asked an organizer of the faculty rally if he'd like me to speak as a conservative supportive of free speech and hostile to Hamas. He said this was the student show and he was uninvolved. He also said,  "Don't you think that might be inflammatory?", since I hd my MAGA hat with me.   I like to  get unlikely people to work together, so that was kinda the point, but it wasn't my show either, so I left.
 * '''Summary.'''

@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 ==April 25 stories==
 *[https://www.wrtv.com/news/politics/gaza-protests-on-ius-campus-leads-to-the-arrest-of-33-people WRTV], "leads to the arrest of 33 people".
 ==Other Universities==

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:12, 28 April 2024
Line 35:		Line 35:
	*[https://iuhillel.org/our-staff IU Hillel staff]		*[https://iuhillel.org/our-staff IU Hillel staff]

		+
		+	==April 28==
		+	*[https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/2024/04/28/serious-first-amendment-problem-iu-changed-policy-on-eve-of-protests/73468476007/ Herald Times discussion of the legal issues,] Boris Ladwig.
		+
		+

	==April 27 Stories==		==April 27 Stories==

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:52, 28 April 2024
Line 58:		Line 58:
	*[https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/protests-arrests-at-ut-campus-attorneys-talk-about-criminal-trespass-laws/ University of Texas, Austin]. County prosecutors drop all 57 cases. Also, [https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/will-charges-be-dropped-against-ut-austin-protesters/?ipid=promo-link-block1 here], which makes me think the protesters probably were NOT breaking any rules:		*[https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/protests-arrests-at-ut-campus-attorneys-talk-about-criminal-trespass-laws/ University of Texas, Austin]. County prosecutors drop all 57 cases. Also, [https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/will-charges-be-dropped-against-ut-austin-protesters/?ipid=promo-link-block1 here], which makes me think the protesters probably were NOT breaking any rules:
	“Peaceful protests within our rules are acceptable. Breaking our rules and policies and disrupting others’ ability to learn are not allowed. The group that led this protest stated it was going to violate Institutional Rules. Our rules matter, and they will be enforced. Our University will not be occupied,” wrote president Jay Hartzell in a statement Wednesday night.		“Peaceful protests within our rules are acceptable. Breaking our rules and policies and disrupting others’ ability to learn are not allowed. The group that led this protest stated it was going to violate Institutional Rules. Our rules matter, and they will be enforced. Our University will not be occupied,” wrote president Jay Hartzell in a statement Wednesday night.
		+	[https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/fire-letter-university-texas-austin-april-25-2024 FIRE said on April 25] in a good memo that they students were not breaking any rules, and the Administration response was illegal under Texas law:
		+	"These foundational free speech principles are also enshrined in Texas state law,17 as well as in
		+	UT Austin policy.18 Texas law is clear: Outdoor common areas on state university campuses are
		+	traditional public forums open for “any person to engage in expressive activities in those areas
		+	of the institution’s campus freely[.]” 19 Students, faculty, and members of the public therefore
		+	have the right to peacefully protest at UT Austin without regard to the views they wish to
		+	express. 20"
		+	:17 The FIRE footnotes are to: Tex. Educ. Code § 51.9315 Protected Expression on Campus,
		+	18 The University of Texas Austin, Why can members of the public come to campus at any time and engage in
		+	demonstrations and speeches?, YOU TUBE (Oct. 15, 2023), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFxvdhFjPo.
		+	19,20 Tex. Educ. Code § 51.9315.

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 * '''Summary.'''
      It appears some pro-Hamas students were planning to erect a tent village in imitation of those at Columbia, MIT, etc. They  set up their rather small number of tents around noon, April 25, Thursday. Pro-Israel students demonstrated across the street (not much smaller a number, I think).  IU called in the state police and had  police dressed as soldiers, reportedly with submachine guns and helmets, to help the campus cops, and even had a sniper on the roof of the Memorial Union.  They told the students to take down their tents; the students refused; the police arrested about 20, including 2 or 3 faculty and took them away on a bus, and the university banned them from campus for a year.
      The blunder was this: THE STUDENTS HAD NOT YET DONE ANYTHING WRONG. If Pres. Whitten had waited till 11pm, the students would have broken the rule against having "structures" up between 11pm and 6 am  on Dunn Meadow (as best as I can tell, that's a rule, and it's a reasonable policy). But it wasn't 11pm yet. Dunn Meadow is a designated location for protests, and putting a tent or sunshade pavilion there isn't against the rules.
+    There were two compounding blunders. First, Pres. Whitten claims it was against the rules because she set up a 4-person committee of administration officials the day before who invented a new rule. Sorry, but that's not how university rules are made, and it won't  stand up in court ieither. Second, she called in the state police. But this wasn't a riot, or anything near it. It was more like fat girls saying they wouldn't let the police tear down their tents. It was overkill, it looked bad, and it must have cost a lot of money to bring in special police.  And if the University gets sued for civil rights violation, actual damages paid out will be trivial, but I think the statute awards legal fees, which would be big, and the loss will be embarassing.
       I might be wrong in particulars, so be careful. But this is what it looks like.
     I should add that in general, I myself am very much in favor of police tearing down tent villages, arresting people, and expelling students. And I am extremely pro-Israel, anti-Hamas. But you need to wait till rules are broken to arrest people.

@@ Line 60: / Line 60: @@
      After consultation with members of my leadership team and Board of Trustees Chair Dan Kelly, the permit request to allow tents was granted through Sunday.
-*[https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/protests-arrests-at-ut-campus-attorneys-talk-about-criminal-trespass-laws/ University  of Texas, Austin].  County prosecutors drop all 57 cases.  Also, [https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/will-charges-be-dropped-against-ut-austin-protesters/?ipid=promo-link-block1 here]:
+*[https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/protests-arrests-at-ut-campus-attorneys-talk-about-criminal-trespass-laws/ University  of Texas, Austin].  County prosecutors drop all 57 cases.  Also, [https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/will-charges-be-dropped-against-ut-austin-protesters/?ipid=promo-link-block1 here], which makes me think the protesters probably were NOT breaking any rules:
     “Peaceful protests within our rules are acceptable. Breaking our rules and policies and disrupting others’ ability to learn are not allowed. The group that led this protest stated it was going to violate Institutional Rules. Our rules matter, and they will be enforced. Our University will not be occupied,” wrote president Jay Hartzell in a statement Wednesday night.

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:29, 28 April 2024
Line 59:		Line 59:
	Shortly thereafter, I visited the site and spoke with the individuals at the encampment, as did SVP Vennie Gore, VP Laura Rugless and other members of the SLE team, underscoring our commitment to dialogue and understanding among all community members. Outreach also has been made to our Jewish leaders and organizations on campus who we know are impacted by the presence of the protest.		Shortly thereafter, I visited the site and spoke with the individuals at the encampment, as did SVP Vennie Gore, VP Laura Rugless and other members of the SLE team, underscoring our commitment to dialogue and understanding among all community members. Outreach also has been made to our Jewish leaders and organizations on campus who we know are impacted by the presence of the protest.
	After consultation with members of my leadership team and Board of Trustees Chair Dan Kelly, the permit request to allow tents was granted through Sunday.		After consultation with members of my leadership team and Board of Trustees Chair Dan Kelly, the permit request to allow tents was granted through Sunday.
		+
		+	*[https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/protests-arrests-at-ut-campus-attorneys-talk-about-criminal-trespass-laws/ University of Texas, Austin]. County prosecutors drop all 57 cases. Also, [https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/will-charges-be-dropped-against-ut-austin-protesters/?ipid=promo-link-block1 here]:
		+	“Peaceful protests within our rules are acceptable. Breaking our rules and policies and disrupting others’ ability to learn are not allowed. The group that led this protest stated it was going to violate Institutional Rules. Our rules matter, and they will be enforced. Our University will not be occupied,” wrote president Jay Hartzell in a statement Wednesday night.