The rally is part of ongoing protests against the university’s ties to Israel, but all three administrators faced a vote of no confidence from faculty several weeks ago.
(Devan Ridgway / WFIU-WTIU)
The rally is part of ongoing protests against the university’s ties to Israel, but all three administrators faced a vote of no confidence from faculty several weeks ago.
Professor Abdulkader Sinno took the stage urging trustees to fire Whitten.
“We place our hopes in you,” he said. “You are at a fork in the road. Inaction is not an option.”
Sinno was suspended from teaching this year after the university says he committed an error reserving a room for a pro-Palestine speaker. That event and other issues led to the vote of no confidence.
Some speakers had to stand across the street because they had been arrested during previous protests in the last few days and barred from campus. Professor Barbara Dennis was arrested after standing between an officer and students and refusing orders to step back.
“I'm not gonna let somebody with weapons get closer to my students,” she said. “Who would do that?”
Barbara Dennis said if she gets a stay on her ban from campus, she can come back for academic purposes. (Devan Ridgway / WTIU)
Other speakers included representatives from the Graduate Workers Coalition, which has been attempting to form a union and win higher wages. Graduate student organizer Sabina Ali said today’s rally is about incidents that have piled up over the course of Whitten’s tenure.
“She just continues to ignore everybody, disregard faculty, graduate students, workers on campus, undergraduate students,” she said. “It's time for her to resign.”
Sabina Ali said today's protest resulted from accumulating issues, including graduate workers' unmet demands. (Devan Ridgway / WTIU)
Also present was Bryce Greene, a PhD students who was given a five-year ban from campus for trespassing during protests. Greene is an organizer with the IU Divestment Coalition, which has helped organize this week’s protests.
He spoke at a press conference this morning against Whitten and Shrivastav enforcing a rule created the night before banning tents during the daytime.
“I think it just shows her disregard for not only the needs and desires of the students, but also a disregard for facts and reason, in the same way that she tried to label these protests as violent,” he said.
Bryce Greene faces a five year ban from campus for tresspassing during protests. (Devan Ridgway / WTIU)
Michael Weinman, an Israeli-US dual citizen and senior lecturer of Political Science and Jewish Studies, gave a speech directed toward pro-Palestine protesters, acknowledging his disagreements with them but saying he supports their right to protest and feels that today they’re part of the same fight.
“We're here for very different reasons, there's an awful lot that we profoundly disagree about,” he said. “But one thing is that we celebrate power. Power is what brings people together. Power is what makes it possible to work together in a democratic society.”
Weinman has been at the rallies and said he has profoundly different views on the state of Israel but that he hasn’t seen any antisemitism. He said he couldn’t disagree more with statements calling for liberation or intifada, but he doesn’t consider them antisemitic.
“I don't feel attacked, I don't feel harassed, I don't feel in danger, he said. “I do feel endangered by those who would call paramilitary police to threaten the people who are making those statements.”
The rally remained peaceful. One IU Police Department squad car blocked off traffic on Indiana Avenue where attendees had spilled into the street. Otherwise, there was no visible police presence. A drone hovered overhead. IUPD spokesperson Hannah Skibba confirmed it was an IUPD drone.
