The Bloomington Faculty Council passed a resolution April 8 to form a mutual academic defense compact for the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
The Rutgers University Senate passed the same resolution April 6 to establish an alliance with the Big Ten’s 18 universities to defend “academic freedom, institutional integrity and the research enterprise.” Rutgers called on the leadership of other Big Ten universities and their governing boards to implement the compact. For the coalition to be created, Big Ten leaders would have to convene a summit and initiate its implementation.
If a compact was established, its funds would be distributed to provide “immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement,” including legal counsel and representations, expert testimony, legislative advocacy and countersuit actions.
The resolution comes after IU professor Xiaofeng Wang was fired from IU the same day the FBI searched two homes he owned in Bloomington and Carmel. Wang’s firing was condemned by IU’s computer science faculty and the American Association of University Professors’ IU Bloomington chapter.
The Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University in March, citing the school’s lack of action against antisemitic harassment, and froze grants and funding totaling $1 billion for Cornell University and $790 million for Northwestern. The administration also canceled nearly 300 student visas, including an unknown number at IU.
Abdulkader Sinno, associate professor of political science and Middle Eastern studies, told the IDS that he felt the Trump administration was trying to wedge its way into university affairs to accomplish their agenda. He mentioned Wang’s firing as motivation to pass the resolution.
Sinno was suspended by IU in December 2023 after he attempted to reserve a room for an event co-sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Committee.
“When they go after one university after the other, even very powerful universities like Harvard and Columbia who have large endowments, the universities cannot resist that, they’re not strong enough,” Sinno told the IDS Wednesday. “So how about even public universities, like IU and Rutgers? They’re super vulnerable.”
Psychology professor emeritus Steven Sherman introduced the idea of a defense compact at the BFC meeting. Sherman said he heard about the Rutgers faculty’s resolution through a colleague at IU.
“It would link the universities, and it would provide a lot of support for faculty,” Sherman told the IDS. “I know quite a few faculty who’ve had their grants suddenly stopped in midstream.”
He said faculty had concerns regarding free speech and tenure. BFC’s version of the resolution was the exact same as the Rutgers resolution with the names of the universities swapped, Sherman said. After he introduced the idea at the meeting, he said the vote for approval passed nearly unanimously.
IU recently removed diversity, equity and inclusion language from its diversity websites and signage around campus following a nationwide push against DEI. Indiana Governor Mike Braun and President Donald Trump both signed executive orders in January to eliminate DEI initiatives.
Higher education institutions nationwide, including Ohio State University and the University of Michigan, are closing their DEI offices. The Chronicle of Higher Education has tracked changes to DEI in over 300 colleges.
Sinno said he thought the faculty felt the need to defend their colleagues and students.
“They wanted administration to actually do something,” Sinno said. “To reduce that cost on any one campus, to coordinate and create (a) common pool of resources to use, to defend whoever is being targeted at the time.”
He was, however, skeptical that IU’s administration would adopt the idea, as they would need to in order to create a compact. Sherman was similarly hesitant.
Sherman said he spoke to Paul Boxer, a member of the Rutgers University Senate, who he said had been in touch with other universities to encourage others to adopt the resolution as well.
“I think it has a chance of gaining foothold. I have no idea whether administrations will be open to it,” Sherman said.
IU spokesperson Mark Bode did not respond by the time of publication.
