Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) – Association of University Professors (AAUP)

Greetings Friends and Colleagues!

On behalf of the IUB Executive Committee of the American Association of University Professors (IUB AAUP), it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the academic year 2025-2026. These past few months have been a challenge, amidst alarming changes to faculty governance, degree programs, and continued attacks on free speech across campus. These changes are not merely the result of a new administrative philosophy. Rather, they represent a systematic dismantling of IU’s established policies and practices designed to ensure educational excellence and intellectual integrity. It goes without saying that IU is currently in crisis. And how we respond to these attacks will ultimately determine the future of IU and its educational mission.   

Indeed, our work has never been more critical. Now more than ever, faculty must collectively organize to defend our academic mission, protect faculty jobs, and preserve the university as a space for free inquiry and democratic discourse. Unless faculty are willing to collectively organize their opposition, these attacks on IU faculty will continue.

Below we offer a digest of recent changes, ongoing issues, and opportunities for working together to uphold our common goals of academic freedom, a diverse classroom experience, support for research, and respect for all constituents of the university.

If you’d like to stay in touch with us and receive updates about our work, please follow us on social media (@iubaaup on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Bluesky) and subscribe to our website for more updates. You can also listen to my recent discussion of these issues on the HoosLeft Podcast.

Under newly elected leadership, the IUB chapter of the AAUP is committed to protect academic freedom on campus. Join us. Get involved. Stand Up for IU!

In solidarity,

David A. McDonald, President IUB AAUP

---

The Legislative Assault: Recent Changes in Indiana Law

HB1001 (now HEA1001) 

Following a late-night intervention at the last minute, the Indiana legislature passed a budget that:

• eliminates shared faculty governance, replacing it with optional consultation;
• eliminates elections for alumni serving on the IU Board of Trustees, replacing them with appointments at the pleasure of the governor; 
• stipulates that only paid employees can vote in faculty councils or senates, thus eliminating the voting power of both emeritus faculty and student representatives to the BFC;
• requires all syllabi to be published publicly online, even as they remain the intellectual property of the instructor;
• requires that a productivity review be conducted annually for all faculty, including those with tenure;
• institutes a threshold for continuing to offer a degree (15/year for BA/BS; 7/year for MA/MS/MFA; 3/year for PhD).

While the elimination of alumni elections affects only IU’s Board of Trustees, the other provisions—including the attacks on shared governance, voting restrictions, syllabus publication requirements, mandatory productivity reviews, and degree program thresholds—apply to all of Indiana’s public universities.

Despite the statewide reach of these provisions, it is particularly concerning that the IU upper administration likely had a hand in shaping these provisions. Based on the statements of fellow legislators and staffers, Representative Matt Pierce is convinced that IU administration was behind the addition of the university-focused provisions of 1001; he observes: “you now have a convergence of the Republican attacks on higher education and the actual administration of Indiana University, and that’s a pretty shocking development.”

Critically, while all public universities in the state face the same legislative constraints and challenges, IU’s administration and Board of Trustees have chosen to go far beyond what HEA1001 requires. Regarding the degree program thresholds, the other three public universities have worked to minimize the legislation’s impact on their academic programs, budgets, and faculty job security. In stark contrast, IU has overcomplied with these requirements—cutting or consolidating 249 degree programs, more than all other institutions combined—using them as justification for far more extensive program cuts than the legislation mandates. This represents not just compliance with hostile legislation, but an embrace of its most destructive potential—turning what could have been a manageable challenge into an existential threat to academic programs and faculty employment across the IU system.

The broader implications of these changes across all of Indiana’s public universities—including the long-term consequences for Indiana students and families—are captured by Noor O’Neill, President of the INAAUP, Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University Fort Wayne, and Secretary of the PFW-AAUP chapter, who states:

“HB1001 accelerates the tragic deterioration of educational quality at Indiana’s storied public campuses and undermines these campuses’ ability to serve as engines of social mobility. Whereas wealthy Hoosiers will access excellent degree programs at out-of-state and private campuses, the rest of us and our children will attend campuses where a highly rigorous and world class education has been replaced by schooling in the latest political fads and grievances.”

These legislative incursions are part of a broader national campaign to bring public universities under direct political control. As reported by Inside Higher Ed, these changes “echo those passed, or at least proposed, in other red states. But Indiana’s General Assembly continues to be in the vanguard among even GOP-controlled legislatures in its fervor for regulating public higher education.“

SEA 289

One of five bills attacking diversity, equity and education in the 2025 legislative session, SEA 289 originally called for the elimination of all DEI offices, staff, and training, and a $50,000 fine for every violation. Fortunately, those provisions were removed in a stripped-down version prior to passage. When SEA 202 passed in the 2024 legislative session, critics suggested that it was an opening attack on diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education—its authors denied that, claiming that 202 was only about “intellectual diversity” and not an attempt to attack diversity, equity and inclusion. In the 2025 legislative session, the fears of opponents were validated insofar as it heralded the passage of SEA289.  

Control & Overcompliance: Recent Administrative Changes

New IUB Chancellor, David Reingold

In June 2025, David Reingold assumed the newly-created position of Chancellor of IU Bloomington, the first chancellor since 2006. Reingold comes to IU from Purdue University, where he served as senior vice president for policy planning and dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

While Reingold has promised to uphold campus traditions, his recent actions (see below under crises) suggest he is in lockstep with the Board of Trustees and the President. Further, his tenure at Purdue raises concerns. In 2021, he effectively shuttered Purdue’s creative writing program and its literary journal, Sycamore Review, by denying the English Department sufficient graduate students to keep the program operational. This precedent suggests an administrative approach that prioritizes cost-cutting over academic program integrity.

The chancellor position adds another layer of bureaucracy between faculty and university leadership, potentially insulating decision-makers from faculty concerns while concentrating more power in administrative hands. It also comes at significant expense to the university. The chancellor’s office adds $1,413,684 in operating costs to IU’s budget (his salary alone is $655,000) at a time when IUB has been asked to reduce its expenses by $29 million. 

Elimination of DEI Offices 

The dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs represents one of the most visible examples of administrative overcompliance with political pressure. Beginning May 22, 2025, IU closed its Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, eliminated DEI offices and staff, and began scrubbing all mentions of diversity, equity or inclusion from all its websites. Since then, numerous offices providing support for under-represented students have been closed, and the directors of diversity, equity and inclusion offices have been terminated in the School of Education, the School of Public Health, and the College of Arts and Sciences. In an August 2025 letter, the Director of the COAS DEI office announced with great sadness that she was being fired.

While IU administration claimed these actions were necessary to comply with federal state law and guidance, it is important to understand that there is no current federal or state law, nor any federal or state guidance, that requires Indiana universities to close their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The DEI office closures are purely voluntary overcompliance. Learn more at the University Alliance for Racial Justice (UARJ) Substack about the voluntary erasure of DEI.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s tracking, similar changes are occurring at institutions across Republican-controlled states. Columbia University and other institutions have also removed DEI language from websites, demonstrating that this is clearly part of a coordinated national campaign.

Exceeding Legal Requirements: Recent BOT Policy Updates

The Board of Trustees passed a number of new and troubling policies in June 2025. None were vetted by any faculty governance body, even though the HB 1001 policy eliminating faculty governance had not yet gone into effect. The administration has described these policies as “complying with state legislature.” Yet these policies go farther than the legislation in destroying decades of practice that have helped make IU a world-class research institution and provide quality teaching instruction while offering a supportive workplace environment for staff and faculty. They undermine the possibility of future shared governance and trust between the upper administration (deans and up) and the faculty, creating a framework for unprecedented administrative control over academic life.

BOT-19

Emeritus Status: While SEA 1001 simply prohibits emeritus faculty from voting in the Bloomington Faculty Council, BOT-19 takes that several steps further, banning the participation of retired faculty in “faculty governance in any capacity” including any committee or task force. This would presumably extend to participation in student doctoral committees. The policy also reiterates that faculty governance in general is advisory only.

These restrictions on emeritus faculty participation represent a tremendous loss for the university community. Emeritus faculty have been a critical source of institutional memory for university committees and provide leadership even in retirement: Professor Alex Tanford has been president of both the BFC and the AAUP while professor emeritus. The BOT’s attempts to shut emeriti faculty out of governance is being challenged by a suit brought by three professors emeritus against the limitations placed on emeritus faculty in both HEA 1001 and BOT-19. 

BOT-24

Post-Tenure Faculty Productivity and Annual Review: The policy goes beyond the HB 1001 legislation mentioned above in defining “unsatisfactory productivity” to mean “faculty member has failed to meet the expectations for productivity and performance. The faculty member has received an overall unsatisfactory annual report rating for two or more of the previous 5 years, and/or has demonstrated a pattern of failing to perform duties assigned by Indiana University, and/or has sustained violations of applicable state and federal law and Indiana University policies and procedures, all noted in the annual reports, are evidence of unsatisfactory productivity.”

The ”and/or” gives upper administration the ability to punish faculty who resist or protest administrative restrictions on their speech and academic freedom. It generates fear, and provides incentives for surveilling and punishing free speech. For more on the outcomes of such policies, read below under current crises.

BOT-25

Merger, Reorganization, and Elimination of Academic Units and Programs: The updated Indiana University policy on the Merger, Reorganization, and Elimination (MRE) of Academic Units and Programs shifts authority and decision-making power more decisively toward university administrators, purportedly to comply with new state laws. The revised policy affirms that faculty governance input is advisory only and that final decisions are subject to state legal mandates and regulatory deadlines. While BOT-25 retains some structures for consultation and review, these are now more explicitly subordinate to administrative discretion and external mandates. For a full picture and comparison with the policy it replaced, see our break-down of the changes.

Faculty from a unit that was eliminated may be reassigned to any other campus at the discretion of the administration. There are no grievance mechanisms for individual faculty to appeal such decisions. 

BOT-26

Financial Exigency: The new policy allows for financial exigency to be determined campus by campus. The definition of financial exigency is: “severe and imminent crisis, the financial impact of which threatens the survival of the university and/or a campus in its present form, that jeopardizes the academic integrity of the university or one or more of its campuses, and that may not be resolved by means less drastic than the elimination of such academic appointments and the imposition of the other measures.” Financial exigency allows for the termination of employment of tenured faculty and long-term academic appointments. The process for determining financial exigency is conducted by the President, who is required to inform, allowed to consult, but not abide by any recommendations of the University Faculty Council Executive Committee.

So far this year, the only threat to the survival of the IU Bloomington campus has been the one posed by upper administration through their overcompliance with HB 1001 and the plan to eliminate dozens of low-degree conferring majors that nonetheless attract high enrollments.

Current Crises: The Cost of Administrative Authoritarianism

1. Destruction of our breadth of curriculum and ability to deliver a top-notch college experience for all undergraduate and graduate students. The four policies above create a framework that prevents faculty from pushing back, retaining strengths, and preserving their conditions of employment. IUB AAUP member Jeff Isaac recently wrote a column about this issue.
2. Elimination of shared faculty governance: Under BOT-25, the BFC becomes a vessel that eliminates the possibility of true engagement in shared faculty governance, and allows the upper administration to ignore input and recommendations by the BFC.
3. Arbitrary revenge and abusive interpretation of policies against faculty who dare to speak freely about these crises. Case in point: Professor Ben Robinson’s arbitrary SEA202 Sanction. See our recent statement on his sanction and learn more about the case at this Indiana Public Media report.
4. Arbitrary revenge and abusive interpretation of policies against students and student organizations who exercise their first amendment rights by criticizing university policies and government violence.

Building Collective Power: What You Can Do

Join the AAUP and bring other colleagues into the organization. We have grown by 15% over the summer and depend on all of you to keep growing.

Ask your unit chair/director/dean to invite your branch of the AAUP to make a 15-20 minute presentation about the AAUP at a regularly scheduled meeting for the faculty. Please reach out to Maria Bucur (mbucur@iu.edu) or David McDonald (davmcdon@iu.edu).

Participate in the AAUP climate survey that we will conduct this fall.

Get involved! We are always looking for members to join our working groups and committees to generate ideas for standing up for our vision of the university and our jobs.

Attend the events planned by the AAUP over the fall:

• September 5, 2025: AAUP and BFC Welcome Event – 4:00-7:00 pm
  Kick off the new academic year with fellow AAUP members at our welcoming social gathering! Join us for an evening of great music, meaningful conversations, delicious food, and refreshing drinks in the warm atmosphere of The Bishop.
• September 18, 2025: IUB AAUP All-Members Meeting – 4:30-6:00 pm
  Join fellow AAUP members for a chapter meeting aimed at connecting, informing, and activating our academic community. This inclusive gathering welcomes all current members to learn more about our chapter’s leadership and ongoing work.
• October 3, 2025: IUB AAUP Town Hall – 3:00-5:00 pm
  Join us for an opportunity to discuss immediate threats to departments and programs, loss of tenure and productivity reviews, the erasure of DEI, and more.

Our success depends on collective action guided by clear principles and sustained commitment to democratic values. Faculty expertise, student energy, and community support represent powerful resources for defending and rebuilding our institutions. The AAUP provides the organizational structure and historical experience needed to coordinate effective resistance. We look forward to working together this fall to make IU a better place for all of us.