Parade, Protests, and a Muted Pep Rally Mark IU Homecoming Amid IDS Censorship Uproar

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Staff report

Bloomington, Ind. – October 17, 2025

Indiana University’s Wizard-of-Oz-themed Homecoming Parade wound through Bloomington near campus Friday evening, terminating at Seventh Street and Woodlawn Avenue, before crowds drifted down to Dunn Meadow for a muted pep rally, which featured the Marching Hundred, and a speaker hyping up the football team, which is number 3 in the country.

There were no coaches, the band played a couple songs, and it was over.

Along the sidewalk in the meadow, a paper “yellow brick road,” created a pointed bit of unintentional stagecraft near the location where Indiana State Police in riot gear arrested faculty and students during Gaza-war protests in 2024.

As floats, sports cars, campus clubs, and the Marching Hundred passed by, ROTC cadets marched in cadence to “Hey, Hey, Captain Jack,” a military call-and-response heard referring to shooting for Uncle Sam at a time when uniformed forces have increasingly been used in American cities.

The celebration unfolded against a backdrop of simmering press-freedom controversy at IU. Citizens, professors and students carried signs and voiced support for the Indiana Daily Student after the university this week fired Jim Rodenbush, director of student media and adviser to the IDS, following a dispute over whether administrators could limit content in a Homecoming print edition. The university says the move is part of a shift away from print; student editors and press-freedom groups call it censorship.

In a show of intercampus support, The Purdue Exponent sent a special solidarity edition to Bloomington that some attendees read along the route and in Dunn Meadow.

Notably absent from the parade were IU President Pamela Whitten and former Bloomington provost Rahul Shrivastav, who now serves as executive vice president and IU Bloomington provost. Dr. David A. Reingold, the chancellor of IU Bloomington, led the parade at the front.

The parade concluded well before the scheduled 7:30 p.m. pep rally. A cover band set followed, but the football team and its head coach—recently granted a contract valued near $93 million—did not appear, nor did the new men’s basketball coach.

A cover band took the stage with “Crazy Train,” while families lingered for children’s games, a pumpkin patch, pizza lines, and a photo booth. As twilight slipped into blue hour, Dunn Meadow slowly emptied—Homecoming pride tempered by unresolved questions over student press independence.

Photos: Jeremy Hogan/The Bloomingtonian.

The post Parade, Protests, and a Muted Pep Rally Mark IU Homecoming Amid IDS Censorship Uproar first appeared on The Bloomingtonian.