The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, placed a billboard at the edge of Bloomington accusing Indiana University of a coverup.
Dominic Coletti, FIRE’s Student Press Program Officer, said that refers to the administration’s decision to end print copies of the Indiana Daily Student.
He believes the move was to stifle coverage critical of the university before alumni returned to campus for homecoming.
IU backtracked on ending print and denied that the move was about censorship. But the free speech group has clashed with the university on other issues, such as its response to pro-Gaza protests and its policy on expressive activity.
Read more: Indiana University facing lawsuit after claims it tried to censor student newspaper
“We've been doing campaigns about IU for a long time. I mean, it didn't end up as the worst public university for free speech for no reason.”
That’s according to FIRE’s own survey, placing IU at 255 of 257 colleges and universities.
IU did not respond to a request for comment.
The billboard on the west side is the first, but Coletti says there could be more. If IU doesn’t come to the table, the campaign will run through the end of the football season.
“The university, it has a choice,” he said. “We won't do it if they sit down with us, they work with us to start reversing the dangerous incursions on free speech and the erosion of a free speech culture that they've allowed to fester on campus.”
Coletti hopes alumni coming to Bloomington for football games will see the billboard and get involved in pushing the university on free speech.
FIRE has run billboarding campaigns before, such as when South Carolina attempted to criminalize discussion of abortion.
