When IU cancelled an art exhibit last year by an alumna and Palestinian artist, provost Rahul Shrivastav told faculty he didn’t mind being cautious.
“Would I rather take a headline that an event was canceled or rather take a headline that an untoward incident happened, somebody got injured, somebody's got —– you know —– worst case scenario?” he said at a faculty Q&A last year. “It's an easy decision for me.”
The university never explained what safety concerns led it to cancel Samia Halaby’s exhibit, or who made that call.
Read more: In wake of Kirk murder, IU student group promotes ‘dialogue over division’
IU isn’t saying whether it was an easy decision to allow its student Turning Point USA chapter to schedule an October “American Comeback Tour” event on campus with Charlie Kirk, the organization’s founder who was murdered during the tour’s kickoff at a Utah university.
And when the same organization wanted to have a vigil for the young conservative firebrand, IU not only allowed it but took the unusual step of using university personnel to stream a religious and partisan political event.
IU spokesman Mark Bode attributed the decision to safety, so that overflow attendees could watch the vigil from IMU’s lobby.
Read more: Hundreds honor Charlie Kirk at Indiana University vigil
The contrast illuminates the flashpoint university and college campuses have become on the issue of free speech. IU has taken multiple hits, most recently a free speech group ranking the school worst on the issue among the nation’s public universities.
Bode would not comment on why Kirk’s event scheduled for October was considered safe enough to be scheduled on campus, yet an art exhibit was described as too dangerous.
To David McDonald, it’s obvious hypocrisy. McDonald, the IU Bloomington chapter president of the American Association of University Professors, partnered with another professor to take students to Michigan State University to view Halaby’s work.
Read more: IU students travel to Michigan for an art show that was supposed to take place at home
IU’s provost covered the cost of travel. No security was provided.
“No one felt there would be security necessary,” McDonald said. “But it’s interesting, because we were, of course, attending an art exhibition that was deemed too dangerous to take place here in Bloomington.”
Inconsistencies like these tell McDonald that IU has lost its “institutional neutrality.” He wants IU to adopt the Chicago principles, which is a commitment to free expression on campus. Purdue, one of its earliest adopters, was ranked at the top of FIRE’s list for campus free speech this month.
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It’s the university’s responsibility to create the space and infrastructure for dialogue and information, McDonald said, regardless of a message’s content. But that doesn’t mean faculty and staff should be neutral.
“In fact, quite the opposite,” he said. “Institutional neutrality and supporting or creating infrastructure for free speech allows for faculty and students to critically engage and to debate in civil discourse. It falls to them, the faculty and students. They have the responsibility to really test ideas.”
McDonald acknowledges this is hard to do when it’s an idea or person you disagree with.
“The university should be completely open to controversial topics and controversial speakers,” McDonald said. But opportunity for “debate and discourse” should accompany their presence.
“We can't simply platform ideas for the sake of the ideas themselves,” he said.
Read more: Hundreds Protest Controversial Speaker At Indiana University
But IU’s platforming of some organizations or events, like Kirk’s vigil, and deplatforming of others, removes opportunities for dialogue, McDonald said. Instead of the entirety of IU’s campus having access to Halaby’s work, it was about 60 students who saw her work for a few hours.
WFIU/WTIU News reached out to another professor for an interview, but the person declined out of fear of retribution.
FIRE’s report said more than 50 percent of IU students report self-censoring once or twice a month, which McDonald said is a problem for students across the political spectrum.
Indiana’s Attorney General posted on Facebook, asking people to report educators making comments to “celebrate or rationalize” the death of Charlie Kirk. Two Ball State employees have been reported, one of whom the university fired. Another professor with Franklin College was reported.
At the vigil for Kirk Sunday night in Indiana Memorial Union’s Alumni Hall, Rokita and other leaders hailed Kirk’s dedication to dialogue.
“We all have to do it,” Rokita said. “That's the call to action. We all have to carry this on. And we can.”
Indiana Senator Todd Young called for a moment of silence for Kirk’s wife, Erika. Young told the audience to take the evening as a “civic great awakening” to carry on Kirk’s commitment to free speech and enterprise.
“Much is said, I think quite appropriately, about how free and open speech was his signature cause, his signature issue,” Young said. “He modeled free speech on a daily basis, and it's tragic that he couldn't descend on Bloomington, Indiana and demonstrate what free speech really looked like.”
