Open Letter to the Bloomington Campus

Our campus is overcome with grief at the loss of Rachael Fiege, a beautiful and talented young woman whose death diminishes us all.

We are heartbroken beyond words for the Fiege family and deeply saddened for her broad circle of loving friends. We are all struggling to make meaning from this incalculable and unfathomable loss.

We call on our campus and our students to honor Rachael by dedicating themselves with their whole souls to Culture of Care. The Culture of Care effort acknowledges the certainty that students are often the only ones present when other students are in life-threatening situations. It calls on all of us to respond to those situations by erring always on the side of intervening and calling for help.

Every student should understand that both our campus and student leaders will support that call in every way possible. We are committed to educating students about avoiding threats to their safety.

We are committed to fostering a campus-wide discussion about how to reduce those threats even further, and will partner with the IDS and student leadership to do so.

We are committed to assuring that reasons students might hesitate to call are reduced through such policies as the Lifeline Law, which protects students from prosecution for underage drinking, public intoxication or other minor alcohol offenses.

Our campus disciplinary policies follow the Lifeline Law approach. We are committed to supporting you in every way in the decision to call 911.  

You will almost certainly be the only ones who can make that call. We are all behind you when you make it.

— Provost Lauren Robel
robel@indiana.edu
— Dean of Students Pete Goldsmith
iubdos@indiana.edu
— IUSA President
Jose Mitjavila
 jmitjavi@indiana.edu