Repression Against Students
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Paranoid Islamophobia
IU uses a general racist and Islamophobic logic that anything associated with Palestine must be a security threat, and will throw away all other principles to suppress Palestine on campus.
The Palestine Solidarity Committee organized an event in the Fall of 2023 on campus. At the last moment, IU ordered them to cancel, citing unspecified security concerns. When PSC held the event anyways, IU suspended PSCās tenured faculty advisor Professor Abdulkader Sinno in retaliation. To do so, IU circumvented normal faculty discipline procedures and violated its own policies. Professor Sinno eventually was forced to flee the United States after enduring months of scrutiny from IU.
In February 2024, renowned Palestinian artist Samia Hallaby, one of the most acclaimed graduates from IUās art program, was set to have a career retrospective at IU in Bloomington. Just before the event, reasoning that anything Palestinian was a threat, they cancelled the event. Despite the event having nothing to do with the war, IU was so afraid of any display of Palestinian culture on campus that it spurned one of its greatest graduates and severely damaged its reputation in the art world. Even after public uproar, the university doubled down and still refuses to reschedule the retrospective to this day.
2024 encampment
On April 25th, 2024, IUDC established an encampment in Dunn Meadow, the historic free speech zone on Indiana University campus to demand that IU divest from the genocide in Gaza. Since 1969, IU Bloomington policy has allowed for the use of temporary structures like tents and canopies at Dunn Meadow without prior approval due to its history as the designated free speech zone on campus. Late in the night before the encampment was established, IU administrators put together an āAd Hoc Committeeā to approve a hastily-made policy that banned the use of structures without prior approval. This new policy became the pretense of bringing repression against peaceful pro-Palestine protesters. After several hours of protest, Indiana University responded by summoning state police troops to arrest 33 protesters including IU faculty, staff, and students. The protesters were forcefully removed from the crowd, dragged across the field, beaten with riot shields and batons, and detained using zip ties. The arrested protesters were also banned from IU campuses for one year. Two days later, an additional 24 protesters were arrested. Indiana State Police brutalized protesters with not only arrests but also by brandishing tear gas, automatic weapons, military vehicles, drones, helicopters, and even snipers perched on top of the Student Union overlooking the students.
Expressive activity policy / protest bans
In August, IU also passed a new express activity policy targeted towards pro-Palestine protesters that severely limited free speech on campus. The policy required prior approval 10 days in advance of daytime campus protests, and banned all activities between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. even if they were not disruptive such as a silent and respectful vigil. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit against IU on the behalf of several pro-Palestine protesters, and federal judge Rich Young ruled that IUās expressive activity policy violated the First Amendment. Youngās ruling described IUās policy as creating a āvirtual āFirst Amendment Free Zoneā on IU property.ā
Violence against students
Since the encampment, Indiana University has used draconian measures to criminalize student activism. The IU Office of Student Life regularly harasses students at rallies and vigils without being able to appropriately cite university policy, handed out student conduct violations to many students for free speech such as peacefully protesting at meetings, and even threatening to call the IU police department to charge some students with misdemeanors.
The most severe repression came in early 2025, when a student was arrested and jailed for over a week for allegedly writing letters to members of the board of trustees urging them to divest from Israel. Letter writing is one of the most common and widely accepted forms of political activism utilized by thousands of people around the country every day to reach their decision makers. Yet because these letters pertain to the topic of Israel, IU administrators considered it a violent threat and pressed charges. Although the letters were written on behalf of all of IUDC, this student was brutally targeted for police repression to be made an example against even the most benign forms of political expression. They were charged with over a dozen counts of level 6 felonies in 3 different counties, moved from jail to jail, dismissed from IU as a student, and dragged through over a year of expensive and traumatic litigation against powerful IU attorneys.
Palestine Solidarity Committee suspended
On August 15th, 2025, Indiana University sent a āCease and Desistā letter to the Palestine Solidarity Committee at IU, with vague language accusing the organization of āviolating university policyā while threatening an investigation. They ordered PSC at IU to suspend operations, and, most egregiously, asked for a comprehensive list of members to investigate, effectively looking to punish any students who have ever been associated with pro-Palestine activism at Indiana University. Because PSC does not keep a list members and does not plan to create one for the purpose of complying with the authoritarian requirements, Indiana University has yet to release the cease and desist to this day.