In a tweet from IU Bloomington’s account Thursday, the university said they were identifying students involved in a large gathering on Washington Street Wednesday and will be handing out suspensions.
We are investigating last night's incident involving a large gathering of students. This violated county and state regulations for groups and physical distancing as well as our own guidelines. This behavior constitutes a serious threat to the IU community. https://t.co/B4N3sioy77 — IU Bloomington (@IUBloomington) August 20, 2020
Ryan Cutshall tweeted a video of the gathering:
Wow... @IUBloomington social distancing at it’s finest. Get the contact tracers ready, they’re going to be busy in a week pic.twitter.com/BbJhRS0c8v — Ryan Cutshall (@r_cutshall) August 19, 2020
As of Thursday evening the video had 85 replies, many expressing dismay over the apparent disregard of Monroe county's mandate that gatherings be limited to 50 people.
The gathering was initially reported by Bloomington City Police.
IUPD said though it only had to respond to a few reports of student gatherings this month that violated the Monroe County Health Order, they do anticipate more this weekend.
IU spokesperson Chuck Carney said he hopes the university's response to Wednesday's gathering will make students reconsider going to and holding large gatherings.
"We are all in this together, and we're only going to be as safe as we keep each other," Carney said. "So, I think that the message is clear and students should think about what they want to get out of this year."
READ MORE: IU Still Has 10,000 Off-Campus Students To Test By Monday
IU President Michael McRobbie sent out a letter to students Thursday afternoon stating that if too many students failed to comply with the Student Commitment Form they all signed before returning to campus, the university would move to all-virtual instruction, following schools like Notre Dame and Michigan State.
Purdue University suspended 36 students Wednesday for violating mask and social distancing guidelines.
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