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Our Concerns
Key events during the Whitten administration that have eroded IU's capacity to function as a respected institution of higher learning.
November 2025
IU removes a School of Social Work lecturer from her class following an intellectual diversity complaint​.
September 2025
IU ranked among the nation's bottom 3 worst institutions for free speech of over 250 universities surveyed. ​
June 2025
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education eliminates 43 and suspends 206 majors across the IU system.​ See our breakout of the programs impacted at IU Bloomington here (other campuses coming soon).
May 2025
The Indiana state legislature eliminates elected alumni positions from the IU Board of Trustees, allowing the governor to appoint all Trustees.
May 2025
A district court grants a preliminary injunction against the "expressive activity policy" enacted following 2024 protests, deeming the policy a likely violation of the First Amendment.
February 2025
Trustees grant Pres. Whitten a 28% pay raise, and extend her contract by five years without notice.
April 2024
Hundreds of IUB faculty pass a vote of "no confidence" in Pres. Whitten, Provost Rahul Shrivastav, and Vice Provost Carrie Docherty.​ Numerous IUB schools pass similar votes.
March 2025
IU allegedly violates its termination policy by firing Professor Xiaofeng Wang and libraries analyst Nianli Ma without providing sufficient notice or conducting a hearing​​​​.​​​
February 2024
The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition issues a vote of no confidence in the Whitten administration.
December 2024
Nearly 1 in 5 surveyed IU faculty report that they have been "disciplined or threatened with discipline for their research, teaching, talks outside the classroom to an academic audience, and/or speech outside the university purview.”
January 2025
Pres. Whitten is accused of plagiarizing sections of both her doctoral dissertation and another paper published in 2006.
April 2025
Several IU administrators charge a student with 12 counts of felony intimidation for sending them holiday cards demanding they divest the university from the state of Israel, the minimum sentence for which is six months in prison.
September 2025
IU refuses to release the results of an independent investigation into Pres. Whitten's plagiarism allegations.
October 2025
Pres. Whitten ties her tenure to IU Football head coach Curt Cignetti's by included a clause in his new contract that cuts his buyout in half should she leave the university before he does.
December 2023
IU cancels the scheduled exhibition of Palestinian-American artist Samia Halaby, citing her "social media posts on the Israel-Gaza war ... comparing the Israeli bombardment to a genocide."
December 2023
IU ignores "written procedural policies" by suspending Prof. Abdulkader Sinno, claiming he violated clerical procedure by helping a student group book campus space for a meeting.
December 2023
The IUPUI Faculty Council reports that Pres. Whitten and the Trustees are making crucial decisions "behind closed doors and without faculty consultation" after they announce the dissolution of IUPUI in July 2024.
April 2022
IUB graduate students go on strike for "increased benefits, job security, and union recognition." Despite widespread support from faculty, the Whitten administration refuses to recognize the union or work with them to adequately address students' needs, prompting an emergency all-faculty meeting (the first in 17 years).
October 2021
Maurer School of Law professor Steve Sanders reports that the Board of Trustees refuted procedural norms by rejecting the search committee's recommendations and selecting Pamela Whitten as IU's 19th president.