On Tuesday afternoon, eight Indiana University seniors set up “Camp Crean” in front of Assembly Hall to secure themselves the best seat in the house for the Hoosiers game against the University of Kentucky Wildcats. The game isn’t set to be played until Saturday evening.
At 4:30 p.m. the Indiana University Police Department forced the students to take down the tent they were using for overnight shelter because it is against university policy for people to set up any kind of “camping equipment” on campus.
While waiting for the IU legal department to make a decision on whether the students are allowed to put the tent back up, all eight guys are still planning to camp out in front of Assembly Hall until Saturday’s game. “We’re either going to A – sleep in a car or B – post up right here for the rest of the night” as one student told us.
“We want to be first in line for the Kentucky game. We’re going to be first in line for the Kentucky game so I don’t think we’re leaving.” said senior Tim Madden.
As of 6:00 p.m, the students were still waiting to find out from University police whether or not the chairs they are sitting on are considered “camping equipment”. If it is decided that chairs do qualify as camping equipment then the students will be forced to remove them as well.
The legal aspects of this situation may come into play because of the Occupy Bloomington protestors that are currently organized in People’s Park in downtown Bloomington.
“(The police) say if you allow people to start camping out here then they can camp out anywhere on campus.” said Madden.
If the police allow people to camp outside of Assembly Hall for games then they will be forced to allow protestors to set up camp anywhere on campus.
A decision should be made by tomorrow morning on whether or not the campers are allowed to put the tent back up as they wait for the big game on Saturday.
For video of the campers talking with us about the decision to remove the tents check out the links below:
And for the latest from Assembly Hall, be sure to follow us on Twitter at @IUSportCom
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Great job Erin !
Seems to me like they could make a specific exception to the rule and provide a specific set of guidelines. I like to see stuff like this. I’m happy to see IU on the come up. So this fiasco is sad to see.
This is not occupy anything, its #campcrean, dont associate us with them if we ever want to get tents up