Campus Reform: Indiana University - Bloomington

Indiana University - Bloomington (IU) was founded in 1820 in Bloomington, Indiana. Today, it is the flagship school of the Indiana University system and enrolls more than 38,000 students. IU is known for its research, its arts program, and also its Division I sports team, the Hoosiers.

Campus Life

At IU, there are 25 liberal student organizations and seven conservative student organizations.

IU has a vast array of far-left student organizations. Groups for parties and candidates include Hoosiers for Nader, Young Democratic Socialists, Students for Democracy, Students for Democratic Socialism, and Students for President Obama.

Liberal political advocacy groups run the gamut of leftist causes. Feminist groups include Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, Planned Parenthood Peer Educators, Access Choice in Bloomington, and GOTOPLESS, which "raise awareness about...the constitutional right of women to be topless or top-free in public where men are able to." Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GBLT) groups are the Hoosier Rights Campaign and the Indiana Universitry Day of Silence. Environmentalists are organized in Greeks Go Green, Green Hoosiers, and IU Green Campus, and pro-drug legalization students can choose between Lokal 420 at IU and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

Leftist students may also join Against the Occupation of Iraq; Students for a Commonsense Health Plan, which supports socialized healthcare; Americans United for Separation of Church and State; Democracy Matters at IU, which supports public financing of elections; HEAL IU Chapter, which focuses on "environmental, animal, and human rights"; Indiana Public Interest Research Group (PIRG); Multicultural Counseling Competency Experience; Students for Social Progress; and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

On the right, IU offers three Republican groups: the College Republicans, IU Republican Women, and Republican Jewish Coalition. There are also four groups for conservatives: Indiana University Conservative Readers, The Indiana Standard, Students For Concealed Carry On Campus, and Young Americans for Liberty. The italicized groupsare affiliated with CampusReform.org's Campus Leadership Program, which provides students with advice, assistance, and support.

Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) and the conservative student publication, The Indiana Standard, are committed to the fight against leftist indoctrination at IU.

In fall 2009, the Indiana Standard reported how the IU Union Board Lectures Committee refused the request of YAL to host Dr. Thomas Woods, Jr. as a campus speaker by claiming that Dr. Woods, a free market champion, was "academically unqualified."

After the story broke, YAL members fought back against the absurd claim, and earned local media coverage with CampusReform.org blog posts, coverage from The Indiana Standard, and a press release. Their case was simple: Dr. Woods is a Harvard graduate and Columbia doctorate, an author of nine books, a senior scholar at the Mises Institute, and testified before the US House Financial Services Committee. That makes him much more qualified than other recent IU speakers, who include a "controversial sex columnist" and a professional cartoonist. Put simply, IU's problem is Woods' free-market beliefs -- not his resume.

With the help of CampusReform.org, YAL members raised enough money to bring Dr. Woods to campus on their own. He will address IU students in September 2010.

Faculty

In the 2008 election, according to campaign finance data from The Huffington Post, 92% of IU faculty and staff who donated to campaigns chose to donate to Democrats. In total, 326 people donated nearly $215,000 to Democrats and just 28 people donated to Republicans.

That puts IU faculty and staff out of step with Indiana residents. In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama won the state by less than a percentage point. His vote total was 49.9% to John McCain's 49.0%. That suggests the monolithically liberal politics of IU are far different from the rest of the state.

University Policy

FIRE, a prominent legal defense organization, ranked IU as a "yellow light" campus in its 2010 report. This rating indicates that IU has "at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application."

FIRE noted IU's allocation of one campus location as a "free speech zone…designated by the Board of Trustees as a spontaneous free speech area." But free speech zones have been consistently struck down in courts as unconstitutional and, as conservatives should note, these zones have been used to marginalize conservative protests.

FIRE also noted that IUB has policies against "hate speech" and that some events on campus "may require security, paid for at the expense of the sponsoring organization. The Indiana University Police Department (IUPD), in consultation with Student Activities and the host facility staff, will determine whether such security considerations are required."

Although this policy may sound reasonable, conservatives should beware. At Central Michigan University (CMU), which had a similar security policy, the CMU Campus Conservatives were charged additional security fees for hosting "controversial" speaker David Horowitz. FIRE wrote a letter to CMU administration pointing out that "any requirement that student organizations hosting controversial events pay for extra security is clearly unconstitutional, as it affixes a price tag to events based upon their expressive content.”  IUB’s policy on security fees could infringe on students’ First Amendment rights.

The Indiana Standard staff has nicknamed IU as "The People's Republic of Bloomington."  While conservatives won't be welcomed with open arms, rest assured that there are conservative students at IUB who would be glad to have you in the fight to take back their campus.

If you would like to take action on this campus or learn more about conservatism at this school, please contact me, Emily Cochran, CampusReform.org's Regional Field Coordinator for Indiana University.