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Thursday, May 30, 2024
Details on leadup to Dunn Meadow arrests
Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Our weekly print edition reduces to monthly this summer.
On Feb. 23, 2023, then-IDS editor-in-chief Helen Rummel published a letter sharing the continuing financial crisis the Indiana Daily Student has been facing for a few years. She wrote the IDS was struggling to produce a weekly print edition while operating at a deficit, and eventually the newspaper could exist entirely differently. The time Rummel mentioned has come, and that change is upon us. As we reach the end of May, most of you have probably noticed our newspaper stands on and off campus have been empty until today’s edition. Due to the IDS’ ongoing financial struggles, the IDS will be going from a weekly print edition to a monthly print edition this summer. From now until July, you can expect a monthly paper in the stands the last
Thursday of each month .Our weekly print edition should resume this fall. Though we are reducing publication to a monthly print edition, we are still publishing content everyday online as normal. Additionally, our newsletter will be published on Mondays and Thursdays this summer. To stay up–todate on our content you can also follow our Instagram and X accounts @idsnews. The decision to reduce to a monthly print edition this summer was made in the spring of 2023, but events in the last year since then have led us to fear more cuts in the future. As we ended the 202324 academic school year, we marked an unprecedented moment in the IDS’ history by holding a walkout April 25. For 24 hours, the IDS did not publish content online and
only posted breaking news on social media. Former IDS editors-in-chief Salomé Cloteaux and Nic Napier published a letter explaining why the walkout had to happen. The IDS, along with other student media like IU Student Television and WIUX, is under threat by the university. Over the years, the IDS has been forced to decrease professional staff, reduce the number of print editions and abandon opportunities to make money. Cloteaux and Napier warned there was nothing left to cut from the IDS without significantly changing its current form — being forced to reduce to printing monthly this summer is just one example. IU student media is vital to the university and the city of Bloomington. The IDS, an editorially independent
Prosecutor drops charges against protester arrested April 8 By Theo Hawkins sohawkin@iu.edu
Monroe County prosecutors dismissed a disorderly conduct charge May 14 against IU alumnus Tom Sweeney, who was detained by IU Police Department while speaking at a proPalestinian demonstration, taken away in a golf cart and arrested April 8. In an email to the Indiana Daily Student, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Kehr said video footage from the event led prosecutors to determine they could not prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt, so they moved to dismiss the case. “I think he and I would agree that I committed no crime,” Sweeney said. The motion was granted and the charges are pending expungement from Sweeney’s record, according to the official case summary obtained by the IDS. Even so, Sweeney said, the month between his arrest and the charge’s drop
was nerve-wracking. He said he was being pressured to accept a pre-trial diversion deal, in which prosecutors would agree to drop the charges if he agreed to complete community service hours and pay a large fee. “That's great, if you're guilty. That's not great if you committed no crime,” Sweeney said. “I was very, very anxious about how that would play out and how it would affect my job and my summer.” The April 8 demonstration began about 20 minutes before totality in Cox Arboretum and included members of IU Alumni for Palestine, the IU Palestine Solidarity Committee and high school students from Indianapolis, who had gathered to demand IU divest from Israel and protest the passing of Senate Bill 202, which increases state legislative oversight on public universities in Indiana. After the eclipse on April 8, IUPD officers at the scene told demonstrators to move
to Dunn Meadow, which, unlike the arboretum, has been designated an “Assembly Ground” since 1969 and been the site of protests and other demonstrations for decades. Sweeney said he had been speaking through the megaphone for less than two minutes at Dunn Meadow when a group of police officers overseen by IUPD Interim Chief of Police Margo Bennett came up behind him and told him he was under arrest. Elizabeth Valencia, IU Indianapolis alumna and IU for Palestine organizer, was present at the demonstration. She said Sweeney checked with present officials to make sure the demonstration had moved to the correct area before he began to use the megaphone, but that as he was about to hand the megaphone over to other demonstrators to make speeches, police were already starting to approach. In Indiana, misdemeanor disorderly conduct is
our papers and read our stories on idsnews.com. Your support helps keep the spirit of student media and local journalism alive. Hopefully we will be able to continue to serve you for many years to come.
student-led news organization, was founded in 1867. For 157 years, it has provided students with opportunities, serving as building blocks for their future careers, and has been a main news source for the IU and Bloomington community. The university won’t support student media and has and will continue to force us to make cuts which hinder our ability to serve the community. Many community members rely on our print edition to keep them informed; most of our newsstands are emptied before the end of the week. The IU and Bloomington community deserves more than a monthly paper, so we will continue our fight for the IDS’ future to provide the news. We are very thankful for readers like you that pick up
defined as “recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally” engaging in “fighting or tumultuous conduct,” making “unreasonable noise” and continuing to do so after being asked to stop or disrupting a lawful assembly. Sweeney said he was charged under the third subsection, not for “unreasonable noise.” “It still remains unclear what the lawful assembly I was accused of disrupting was,” Sweeney said. “In fact, our lawful assembly was quite disturbingly disrupted by IUPD. And I knew that the charges just could not hold because I committed no crime.” Shems Alubaidi, an IU alum, longtime Bloomington resident and IU for Palestine organizer who also witnessed the arrest, said she felt Sweeney was arbitrarily targeted because he was one of the loudest voices at Dunn Meadow.
SEE CHARGES, PAGE 4
Natalie Fitzgibbons Editor-in-Chief
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IU Board of Trustees affirm support for Whitten
The board released a statement May 14. By Jack Forrest jhforres@iu.edu
The IU Board of Trustees expressed support for President Pamela Whitten in a statement released May 15. They also expressed gratitude for faculty, staff and other constituents who have shared concerns with them and want to address them “in a proactive and effective manner.” “Our direct conversations with President Whitten and her leadership team make it clear that they, too, understand the challenges and are also committed to paving a productive path forward,” the statement read. “The Board of Trustees will provide all resources necessary to address these issues in a transparent and accountable fashion.” The statement also said
the board has asked Whitten to commission an independent review of the “campus climate.” The statement did not clarify who will conduct the review or what the review process will entail. “With strong leadership, President Whitten has guided our university to many positive accomplishments under adverse conditions and continues to enjoy our support,” the statement read. “We are confident she can and will rise to this challenge.” The statement came one day after the board met virtually in a previously-unscheduled executive session meeting May 14 to discuss either “initiation of litigation or litigation that is either pending or has been threatened specifically in writing” against the university.
SEE WHITTEN, PAGE 4
MIA HILKOWITZ | IDS
JACOB SPUDICH | IDS
IUPD detains pro-Palestine protester and IU alumnus Tom Sweeney on April 8, 2024, in Dunn Meadow during eclipse festivities. Monroe County prosecutors dismissed a disorderly conduct charge May 14 against Sweeney.
IU President Pamela Whitten speaks to graduates at the Graduate Commencement on May 3, 2024 in Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The IU Board of Trustees expressed support for Whitten in a statement released May 15.
Bloomington's 7 Day Forecast
SOURCE: THE WEATHER CHANNEL GRAPHICS BY: LEXI LINDENMAYER
Thursday May 30
Friday May 31
Saturday June 1
Sunday June 2
Monday June 3
Tuesday June 4
Wednesday June 5
77° 52° P: 6%
79° 57° P: 4%
75° 59° P: 71%
78° 63° P: 51%
83° 67° P: 54%
81° 69° P: 58%
85° 66° P: 58%