The Bloomington chapter of the American Association of University Professors issued a press release July 7 entitled, “The Indiana University Board of Trustees Has Learned Nothing about Shared Governance,” criticizing IU’s proposed expressive activity policy.
The AAUP is a nonprofit national organization formed in 1915 with the goal of promoting cooperation between professors across the country, according to its website. It promotes shared governance and academic freedom at universities.
The AAUP condemned IU and the Board of Trustees for their “hasty push for new regulations governing free speech on IU campuses.”
According to the press release, the AAUP took issue primarily with the time frame given by the Board of Trustees for community feedback. A transmittal memo sent to faculty members accompanying the policy draft stated IU intends to implement a final policy by Aug. 1.
“Much of the recent crisis was in fact caused by administration bypassing the basics of healthy shared governance, meeting secretly and at night to change longstanding policy,” AAUP IU South Bend president and professor Jake Mattox said in the release. “The very fact that the BOT thinks it’s OK to change policy this way, and this fast, illustrates its disturbing lack of understanding of how a healthy public university should function.”
IU General Counsel Anthony Prather began circulating the policy draft for comment in mid-June from members of the IU community. In the trustees’ June meeting, then-trustee Jeremy Morris specifically noted that they were looking for feedback from IU students, faculty and staff.
The new policy draft, if enacted, would be a definitive solution to the conflict around free speech policy on campus. IU has acted based on a 1989 recommendation from a special Assembly Ground Advisory Committee, which itself was an interpretation of an official 1969 policy.
IU officials called for a change in the policy following the university’s response to protesters forming an encampment in Dunn Meadow. Indiana State and IU Police arrested 57 protesters on April 25 and 27.
Protesters were charged with criminal trespass and issued trespass bans from campus following a policy change made by an ad hoc committee the evening prior to the encampment’s first day. The policy change added a rule that all structures — including tents — required pre-approval from university officials, modifying existing policy.
The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office later dropped the criminal trespass charges. The ongoing encampment has remained in Dunn Meadow for over two months.
“This was a policy that was on the books for more than 50 years,” AAUP Indiana Conference President and IU librarian Moira Marsh said. “The university administration, unilaterally and very swiftly — almost literally in the dead of night — changed that, and that was what led to state police being on our campus in Dunn Meadow.”
The policy draft outlines specific restrictions that were not present in previous iterations of the policy. The new policy would prohibit overnight camping altogether and require structures of any kind to be pre-approved by a committee. It also states that punishment for violation of the policy could involve university or law enforcement officials and issue trespass charges, reinforcing the precedent set by the ad hoc committee.
IU Student Government sent a copy of the draft to IU students along with a survey in late June to seek input from students. They issued a statement July 17 on their Instagram page following weeks of student feedback stating they do not support the policy as written “due to its punitive, restrictive nature and questionable neutrality.”
An IU spokesperson reiterated IU’s response from June 28 after the draft was first release.
“The university community has been asked for feedback by July 15, and that feedback will be carefully considered by the Board of Trustees before finalizing and voting on the draft policy in time for the beginning of the academic year in the fall,” the statement read.
The Board of Trustees and IU Faculty Council did not respond to requests for comment on the AAUP’s statement.
The Board of Trustees is hosting a public meeting Monday. The IU Board of Trustees will discuss the proposed expressive activity policy, according to an IU press release Tuesday. It will take place at 1 p.m. in the Showalter House’s Peterson Room.
The trustees will also meet in two executive sessions, which are not open to the public, 9 a.m. Thursday and 12:15 p.m. Monday — immediately preceding the public meeting.
