This story has been updated.
IU is pursuing sanctions against a graduate student and professor who spoke at a free speech vigil Sunday night.
Doctoral student Bryce Greene and Germanic Studies professor Ben Robinson are accused of violating IU’s new Expressive Activity Policy, which, in part, prohibits protests between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Last weekend’s protest started just before midnight.
Robinson said the vigil's primary focus was to make a statement about free speech at IU, but he acknowledged some protesters hoped by violating the policy they could better understand how it works.
“In that sense, we certainly were out there to understand what the limits were but also how it would be enforced,” he said.
Listen: IU's new expressive activities policy
Greene alleges the university targeted him and Robinson based on the content of their speech. He said he doesn’t believe IU is enforcing the new rules as they’re written.
“If they were, then people other than me would have been hit with sanctions,” Greene said. “But in fact, they only targeted me and another professor who must have said something that they didn’t like specifically.”
IU spokesperson Mark Bode said the university doesn't comment on individual misconduct cases and sent a link to the Expressive Activity Policy.
Both men have been involved in pro-Palestine protests on campus and were arrested by the State Police for trespassing in April. The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office refused to file those charges.
Robinson like other professors is bound by the faculty conduct policy. The severity of the sanctions being weighed against him would determine what happens next in his case.
The Office of Student Conduct offered Greene two options.
The first is an “Alternative Resolution Process”. It would require him to “accept responsibility for the decisions (he) made and the harm that was caused” and create a plan to “rebuild trust with the community and ensure community safety.”
The second is the standard conduct process. That option would play out more like a trial, with both sides presenting witnesses and information. The Dean of Students would then decide which sanctions, if any, will be enforced. They could include probation, suspension or expulsion.
Greene has been invited to a one-on-one meeting Sept. 3 with Libby Spotts, senior associate dean of students. Greene wouldn’t say which option he’ll take.
