Editor’s note: The story includes mentions of antisemitism and racism.
Nearly two months after opening an investigation into accusations of antisemitism and the leadership style of Student Body President Aaliyah Raji and Vice President Marsha Koda, the IU Student Government Committee on Oversight and Finance released a final report Wednesday recommending that Congress draft Articles of Impeachment.
The report claims Raji and Koda failed their constitutional duty of being spokespeople for the entire student body, including Jewish students on campus who make up 10% of IU’s student population. While election fraud was not mentioned during the investigation, the final report also alleges Raji and Koda turned in their campaign’s financial statement past the deadline, which procedurally should have resulted in their disqualification during the election last spring.
However, throughout the investigation, five members of IUSG’s executive cabinet raised concerns about bias and lack of objectivity from the committee. The final report did little to alleviate their worries, they said, explaining that the report included evidence without further context and ignored other pieces of evidence. In an interview with the IDS, these five members of IUSG’s executive cabinet – Raji, Koda, Tinsley, Co-Director of Title IX and Sexual Violence Prevention Nicole Santiuste, and a presidential advisor – also claim the committee had included and allowed racist testimony and evidence during the investigation process.
Of the seven committee members, six members – Committee Chair John Lane, Recorder Aidan Chism, Parliamentarian Drew Yeager and representatives Elizabeth Conley, Justin Farajollah and Shane Sanders – voted to finalize the report, while one, Speaker of Congress Jack Tyndall, voted against.
The hearings
From Nov. 10 to 13, five members of IUSG’s executive branch resigned, including former Co-Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Makiah Pickett and former Treasurer Alex Kaswan, who shared a letter to the IU student body criticizing Raji and Koda for allegedly failing to address antisemitism on campus.
Following this, the Committee on Oversight and Finance held three hearings from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3 where they subpoenaed and interviewed 11 students: former Congressional Secretary Abigail Garrison, Vice President of Chabad Abby Rose, Kaswan, president of the Indiana Israel Public Affairs Committee Ethan Fine, former Co-Chiefs of Staff Abby DeArmitt and Patrick Lee, Pickett, former President of Hillel Rachel Applefield, Raji, Koda, and acting Chief of Staff Cooper Tinsley.
Their testimonies addressed several claims, including that Raji made antisemitic comments, that IUSG leadership made little effort to support Jewish students following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas, and that there were differences in leadership style.
The evidence
The students who testified were encouraged to submit evidence, some of which is publicly available on the IUSG OneDrive. During the investigation, interviewees were able to provide evidence that would not be disclosed in public hearings and request to speak in executive sessions which were closed to the public.
The final report briefly describes the sealed evidence, such as text messages between senior cabinet members and recordings of cabinet meetings, conversations and arguments between members of IUSG.
“All of the evidence that we submitted was submitted upon the stipulation that it would be sealed,” Cooper Tinsley, a Jewish student leader and IUSG Chief of Staff, said. “They did not tell us that it was possible for them to unseal evidence after the fact.”
While the final report says it anonymizes the sealed information “to the best extent in which it provides clear information and close secrecy,” Tinsley said it completely disregards Raji, Koda and others’ concerns about their safety and privacy.
“They are very clearly picking and choosing which evidence they allowed to become public and unseal so that they can confirm their preordained beliefs about Aaliyah and Marsha and their ability to lead the organization,” Tinsley said.
The committee’s report
Much of the evidence in the report, members of the executive cabinet said, was taken out of context or incomplete.
The report describes messages in group chats with senior executives discussing how to respond to direct messages on the IUSG Instagram, including one message from Fine about IUSG’s lack of support for Jewish students. The report states Raji directed staff to ignore messages from Jewish students and threatened to remove access from the Instagram account if they didn’t.
While the report includes quotes from Raji and Koda, it excludes similar texts from other senior executives, Raji said. The senior executives, including the former co-chiefs of staff, sent messages such as “personally I think the best case of action is not responding bc he’s gonna pick that apart but just my thoughts,” and “we don’t owe it to him to comment on a global issue,” according to screenshots of the group chat sent to the IDS.
Raji clarified she didn’t tell anyone to ignore the direct messages; the senior executives simply wanted to take the time to craft a response before opening the messages.
“When I said ‘you don't need to open it,’ it was never in an attempt to not respond to him,” Raji said. “It was just like the message came off in a very aggressive tone. A lot of work is being done behind the scenes – and this just invalidated that because our silence is taken as being non-committal or not showing support, and that's not true.”
In the report, the committee wrote that Raji used blatantly antisemitic language in July 2023 when IUSG released a statement regarding the United States Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action. The statement listed all the culture centers on campus with the exception of IU Hillel, the university’s Jewish Culture Center, and the LGBTQ+ Culture Center as resources for students.
The report implies Raji made the decision alone to exclude those two culture centers, but she said she worked with other senior executives and members to develop the statement. In her testimony, Raji explained that IU Hillel and the LGBTQ+ Culture Center’s exclusion was an unintentional mistake made due to miseducation, and they corrected it after educating themselves by mentioning the centers in the comments.
While the report describes Raji and Koda as reluctant to accept constructive criticism, multiple members of the cabinet said Raji and Koda have shown their commitment to learn and grow as leaders, something the members believe they should be encouraged to do, not criticized for.
“When we break someone for making a mistake or maybe not doing something to the best of their abilities, we're hindering progress – not only progress for Aliyah and Marsha but progress for future Black women or future Black student leaders to also have the opportunity to make mistakes, learn and improve,” Santiuste said. “When we don't allow student leaders to do that, we create a negative environment where it's perfection or failure.”
The report also includes evidence outlining IUSG’s failure to plan events addressing antisemitism on campus, including evidence from Pickett and a former co-chief of staff describing Raji as “non-committal” when planning these events and indicating a lack of outreach from any senior executive officers.
The cabinet members explained that IUSG directors do not report to the student body president and have full independence to plan their events. Raji said she communicated from the start of her term that directors did not need to ask permission to hold events, and she never discouraged them from coordinating an event with IU Hillel.
Koda said she especially took issue with the portion of the report detailing her absence from IUSG. She was medically excused from academics and extracurriculars for about a month, and the report says her inability to perform or delegate her duties contributed to a lack of leadership.
Koda affirmed her role was covered, even though, due to her extenuating and unexpected circumstances, it was not possible for her to delegate tasks. It was a medical situation that she revealed to the committee under the impression that it would be sealed.
Additionally, the report describes a Congress meeting Oct. 30, 2023, during which representatives discussed the committee of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’s advocacy agenda. A representative said the agenda, which included a section about reducing antisemitism on campus, should also mention Islamophobia.
Abby Rose, a Jewish student and vice president of Chabad, said Islamophobia should be included in a different section of the agenda, because antisemitism deserved its own section. Raji then told Pickett that Rose was “playing the victim.” In her testimony and a statement, Raji admitted to and apologized for making the hurtful comment.
However, Raji denies being “reportedly irritated about the inclusion of anything involving antisemitism in the document,” as the report states.
Accusations of racism and bias in the committee investigation
Five members of IUSG’s executive cabinet – Raji, Koda, Tinsley, Santiuste and a presidential advisor – reported there were prejudicial attacks directed at Raji and Koda, the first Black women to hold the positions of student body president and vice president at IU, since the start of the investigation.
In a statement posted to Instagram on Jan. 9 in response to the report, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter at IU wrote that these attacks pose a threat to the future and the wellbeing of the two student leaders.
“The derogatory remarks directed at Aaliyah Raji and Marsha Koda not only inflict individual harm but also detrimentally impacts the entire Black community at Indiana University and nationwide,” the statement reads.
During her public testimony in November, Applefield repeatedly accused Koda of “playing the minority card” and “playing the race card.” Raji received similar comments after posting a statement Nov. 15 in response to the allegations of antisemitism and addressed her identity as a Black, Nigerian and Muslim woman.
“As if pulling the ‘Black card’ actually existed, as if it gave us an advantage – when in reality when we're looking at it on this campus specifically, Black students are less than 5% on campus,” Santiuste, who is a Black student and member of the executive cabinet, said. “Our race does not give us an advantage. The only thing that being Black does is before anyone knows anything about us, they know our race.”
The NAACP denounced the use of phrases like “playing the race card,” saying that they have historically been used to demean people of color, and in this case, dismiss Raji and Koda’s responses as a victimization strategy.
“While we acknowledge that President Raji's statement was inappropriate, it is equally unjust to employ similar rhetoric in response,” the statement reads.
This was one example of the Committee on Oversight and Finance perpetuating or failing to address discriminatory remarks during the testimonies, the chapter wrote.
The NAACP statement also refers to posts Ethan Fine, president of the Indiana Israel Public Affairs Committee, shared during the investigation on his now private X account.
In November, after Pickett and Kaswan shared their resignation letter, Fine posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling for Raji and Koda’s resignation or impeachment.
After Raji posted her statement Nov. 15, Fine shared a post on X saying “Instead of apologizing, student body president doubled down and said that another African American woman is coming after her for being an African American woman. Make it make sense.”
In their statement, the IU chapter of the NAACP referred to a now deleted X post by an unnamed Jewish student leader that suggested Pickett couldn’t target Raji because they share the same racial background.
“This ignorant and overt dehumanization of people of color adds to the harmful rhetoric of Black victimhood,” the NAACP statement reads.
The chapter also condemned the comments on Fine’s X posts, although they did not name him directly, alleging that the comments “continue to contain blatantly racist and Islamaphobic rhetoric targeting President Raji and other Muslim students.”
Comments under some of Fine’s X posts include “Clean IU. Report to Gaza all Palestinian Terrorists, Terrorist supporters and Antisemites” and “Report report report to your local police and govt agencies and have them fired, removed, expelled, arrested, deported,” which appears to be a reference to Raji and Koda.
Fine and the people in his comments tagged accounts owned by IU, organizations that expose alleged antisemitism and blacklisting websites. Commenters included links to Raji’s social media accounts, personal details about her and calls to limit her employment opportunities.
“It’s very hard to believe that it's not about a public doxing or cancellation,” Tinsley said.
Koda said the comments under Fine’s posts are abhorrent and repulsive, and she found it unacceptable that the committee allowed him to speak after seeing the posts.
Raji took issue with other posts Fine has shared or reposted, which are unrelated to the investigation, but have offensive messages about the Israel-Hamas war, she said.
She also said she had a meeting Oct. 25 with Lee and Fine, who wanted to make IUSG aware of the issues the Jewish community was facing on campus. During this meeting, Fine said if someone called her the n-word, the campus would be in uproar.
Tinsley said he’s upset the committee allowed “blatantly racist” testimony and attacks during their investigation.
“Not only do they allow it, they took it into consideration,” he said.
In a statement to the IDS, Fine and Applefield said Raji is attempting to divert attention away from the committee’s recommendation to impeach her, and she is failing to deal with the charges against her.
“Instead of acting like a leader and learning about how Jewish students at Indiana have regularly experienced antisemitism, she is using her power and position to intimidate and attack Jewish students with false allegations of racism and Islamophobia,” the statement reads. “We wholeheartedly reject these claims as they attempt to ignore and erase the work we have done as student leaders to build strong connections between the Jewish community and other minority communities at IU. We have always been committed to ensuring Indiana University is a safe place for all people regardless of race, religion, or national origin.”
The Committee on Oversight and Finance also responded to accusations of bias in a statement to the IDS, reaffirming that they acted with integrity and impartiality during the investigation. With the help of IU faculty, they took all steps to ensure the safety and privacy of those involved, according to the statement.
“The committee regularly discussed the importance of balancing transparency and confidentiality when it came to the safety of all Indiana University students,” the statement reads. “Furthermore, as students at a public university, the committee is not able to obstruct people’s first amendment rights such as public comments and posts of subpoenaed individuals. We as a committee understand that a wave of racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of discrimination are washing over our nation right now. We do not condone any such beliefs or actions.”
Allegations of election fraud
Although the 2023 election was never mentioned during the public hearings throughout the investigation, potential election fraud is listed among the reasons for impeachment in the report. One piece of sealed evidence, according to the report, are text messages to senior executive cabinet members where Raji and Koda admit to submitting their financial statement for their campaign to the Election Commission past the deadline. Late submissions result in automatic disqualification, but the Election Commission seemed to have failed to disqualify their ticket, according to the report.
“The course of the investigation has shifted from allegations of antisemitism to the efficiency of me and Marsha's leadership, to questioning our character, to now questioning our legitimacy and bringing in alleged election fraud,” Raji said.
The IDS will continue to report on and provide updates surrounding these election fraud allegations.
Executive sessions
The minutes from each executive session, which are private meetings including just the members of the Oversight and Finance Committee, were released late Jan. 11. This release revealed the exact motions that were made by the committee members in decisions about the investigation and the final report.
In the Jan. 3 executive session minutes, Tyndall motioned to strike mentions of election violations from the report. This vote failed with Tyndall being the only committee member voting for it.
In the final Jan. 7 executive session minutes, when Chism motioned to finalize the report, Tyndall was the only committee member to vote against the report’s finalization.
“First I would like to say that although I am Speaker of Congress, that these (his) views on the report are in no way meant to represent the Student Body Congress as a whole, nor the Committee on Oversight and Finance,” Tyndall said.
Tyndall voted against the report’s finalization because he believed that the committee needed more time when preparing and reviewing changes. He also disagreed with the inclusion of a recommendation for impeachment, which he said was “not necessary to include in the report.”
What happens next?
With a recommendation from the committee, Articles of Impeachment may be drafted and submitted to Congress. According to Article 3 Section 6 of the IUSG Constitution, the voting process begins with Congress bringing a resolution for impeachment to the floor, where two-thirds of Congress must vote to impeach. If the vote moves through Congress, it will then be presented to the Supreme Court, where a two-thirds vote could remove the president and the vice president.
