The first pro-Palestinian protest of the semester took place Thursday evening at Sample Gates without major incident.
A group of a few hundred gathered at 7pm to protest the conflict in Gaza and demanded the resignation of IU President Pamela Whitten, provost Rahul Shrivastav, and vice provost Carrie Docherty.
Across the street, a U-Haul sporting a pro-Israeli flag and a couple of counter protesters stood watch.
Early on, IUPD arrived and spoke with one protestor. IUPD received a call that the protester hit a counter protester with his umbrella. But according to doctoral student Bryce Greene, he was not taken into custody.
“Of course, he (the counter protestor) had no proof, but he called the police,” he said. “The police came and interrogated this man, and of course, there's no proof, so they had to let them go.”
IUPD left shortly after questioning the man. Afterwards, the protestors walked a loop to the town square, to Dunn Meadow, then back to Sample Gates where the crowd dispersed around 8:45.
This comes after Greene and Germanic Studies professor Ben Robinson were accused of violating IU’s new Expressive Activity Policy, at a vigil for free speech on Sunday evening.
Greene is in the process of scheduling a meeting with the Office of Student Conduct. He is also acting as the plaintiff in the ACLU’s new lawsuit against the university.
“I'm calling attention to the fact that they're not even enforcing that policy as it stands,” he said. “If they were enforcing that policy, then why weren't other people sanctioned by the university?”
Both Greene and Robinson were arrested by the State Police for trespassing in April. The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office refused to file those charges.
