Fighting Back
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IU’s community refuses to back down from the administration’s authoritarian repression. Throughout the last several years, students and faculty have bravely stood up for our shared humanity.
No confidence vote
After IU’s attacks on tenure and cancellation of Samia Halaby’s exhibition, frustration with IU President Pamela Whitten hit a breaking point. Frustrations with an undemocratic budgeting process, IU’s treatment of graduate workers, and other sundry issues combined with the academic freedom crisis triggered by cracking down on Pro-Palestine activists. In April 2024, the Bloomington Faculty Council overwhelming turned in a vote of no confidence in Pres. Pamela Whitten, delivering a sharp rebuke to the administration. Soon after Whitten called State Police on the encampment, every school and college held their own faculty votes, each calling for Whitten to resign or be fired. IU’s administration has been operating in defiance of shared governance ever since.
2024’s 100-day encampment
The encampment for Palestine that happened in 2024, we referred to as the liberated zone (LZ). Palestine was the heart of the LZ and core of our organizing principle. This place challenged our university’s and nation’s apathy to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as 75+ years of occupation and land theft. Indiana University is not only complicit in supporting land theft and genocide internationally, but is actively built on the stolen land of the Myaamiaki, Lënape, Bodwéwadmik, and Saawanwa peoples here. During the time of the liberated zone, we reframed and decolonized ideas of public vs private land. We gathered together, we grew food, we lived directly on land with our community. The liberated zone also created a place for a collective of peoples to educate each other and confront the white supremacist and colonial norms and structures of the university. We were able to work towards this through not only our presence but our commitments to centering liberatory frameworks in teach-ins, art workshops, religious events for all peoples, a liberation garden, and an alternate graduation for students of conscious. We kept our steadfastness for our Palestinian brothers and sisters, which showed within art around camps, vigils we held, each tent was named after a martyr, and fundraising for families in Gaza. Even after the 100 days, after Indiana University covered all of the physical reminders of the LZ, this steadfastness remained in our organizing and continues in the Popular University for Gaza
Popular University for Gaza
Popular University for Gaza (PUG) is a campaign by IUDC that uses the popular education model to educate each other using our own experiences, relationships, and actions to build a collective critical understanding of Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians and IU’s complicity here on campus. IUDC believes that the purpose of a university is education. Rather than the current university frameworks and narratives that prioritize its political and economic interests and reinforce oppressive systems, PUG is a parallel institution that repurposes the tools of the university for real learning through popular education. We all have something to teach to one another and something to learn from one another. We all hold expertise in our own lived experiences. PUG is an invitation to participate in this critical pedagogy that consider what we learn in context of our conditions. We take turns holding teach-ins, skillshares, dialogues, and other educational events on topics we choose ourselves. Some over the past year include Jewish Antizionism, the technology of apartheid, and connections between Algeria and Palestine.
If you are interested in joining the Popular University for Gaza, get onboarded here
Petition
The 2024 encampment made divestment an undeniable part of campus politics. IUDC built on that momentum with a petition reiterating our demands. In a couple short months, IUDC collected over 2,500 signatures. In November, IUDC hand-delivered the petition to an IU Vice Provost forcing them to acknowledge the overwhelming sentiment of the student body. Many who signed the petition indicated interest in organizing with IUDC over the next several years.
Fundraising, rallies, and vigils
In addition to fighting for political change, IUDC also organizes direct mutual aid. IUDC worked with three families trapped in Gaza during the most intense periods of the genocide. Together, they raised thousands of dollars to help families survive.
IUDC also frequently organizes rallies and vigils on campus. While IU would prefer the Palestinian cause to go away quietly, IUDC’s rallies have made Palestinian rights a visible part of campus life. They have also organized vigils to remember the thousands of people who were killed or injured by Israel’s genocidal war. This work is an important component of active public memory that pushes the University to recognize the genocide in Gaza and take action to prevent continuing harm.