There have been 57 arrests in two days of protests on IU’s campus as of Tuesday morning, including students and professors. These arrests include one-year bans from campus, and one five-year ban.
IU President Pamela Whitten said those who need to return to campus to finish the semester should contact IU police to open an appeal, which would allow them to be on campus.
Since last week, hundreds have gathered and set up encampments at Dunn Meadow, a designated assembly ground, to protest Israel’s war in Gaza. They’re demanding IU divest from Israel and cut ties with southern Indiana naval base Crane.
The group is also calling for IU President Pamela Whitten, Provost Rahul Shrivastav and Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty to resign.
Read more: LIVE: Day 6 of protests on IU campus
The Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union released a statement Friday saying a sudden policy change, arrests and one-year bans “were issued without due process and are disproportionate.”
"Our college campuses are obviously the heart and soul of free speech in our country, and none of the actions by the university or the Indiana State Police seem to be aligned with our free speech principles in this country," said Chris Daley, executive director of Indiana ACLU.
In addition to appealing trespass bans with IUPD, Daley wants people to reach out to the ACLU to advocate for their First Amendment rights.
“We encourage anyone to do that. Anyone who does think their rights have been violated should certainly reach out to the ACLU of Indiana,” he said. “They can do that through our website. There's a link there to send us a notification if they think their rights have been violated.”
“Administration officials at IU and nationwide are under intense pressure right now to crack down particularly on protests related to support of Palestinians,” Daley said. “And it does certainly seem as if they've made a misstep here because of that pressure and have taken an action that's not in line with our constitutional principles in this country.”
In a statement Sunday, Whitten says an ad hoc committee met to change policy due to “a troubling rise in antisemitism.”
“Specifically, antisemitic episodes have been linked to this national encampment campaign,” the statement said. “It was in this unique context that we appointed the ad hoc committee and charged them to modernize our protocols for the presence of overnight structures in Dunn Meadow to address this contemporary issue.”
U.S. Rep. Jim Banks’ (R, IN-03) accused Whitten last year of failing to combat antisemitism. Banks threatened that IU could lose federal funding and took aim at student activists. He called pro-Palestinian demonstrations "pro-terrorist.”
Read more: Whitten responds to Rep. Banks’ letter and accusations of failing to combat antisemitism
WTIU’s George Hale conducted the interview for this story.
