At least one Indiana University professor is under investigation for allegedly violating “intellectual diversity” requirements under Senate Enrolled Act 202 violations, according to documents obtained by the Indiana Daily Student.
A student anonymously reported IU Germanic Studies Professor Benjamin Robinson through a Bias Incident Report in October last year while in Robinson’s class “Introduction to German Thought and Culture.” The report was sent to the Office of Institutional Equity, which is now named the Office of Civil Rights Compliance.
The report was then forwarded to the IU Compliance Office and ultimately filed as an SEA 202 complaint by Chief Compliance Officer Mike Jenson in November.
IU did not provide comment by the time of publication.
The case related to new requirements for professors instituted by SEA 202, signed into law in March last year. The law increases state oversight of “intellectual diversity” in classrooms and requires public universities to outline procedures for complaints against professors “not meeting certain criteria related to free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity.”
“The SEA case was filed against me by IU administrators on the basis of an anonymous complaint filed in a different process, one that has no implications for investigation or discipline,” Robinson said in a text to the IDS. “The administration’s precedent of refiling low level anonymous complaints as complaints with potentially severe consequences is a dangerous one if it is allowed to stand.”
The University Faculty Council released an information page about the act updated in July last year, with the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel answering questions from faculty.
SEA 202 mandates a formal complaint process for potential violations of the law. IU’s existing complaint system, EthicsPoint, serves as the reporting platform for SEA 202 violations. Complaints can come from within and outside of the university.
“If the precedent stands the university upper administration becomes complicit in these attacks by amplifying the voices who are seeking to stifle the expression of a particular point of view.” Robinson said in the text.
The initial bias report against Robinson focuses on his criticisms of IU and Israel.
“This professor has repeatedly spoken against Indiana University on several occasions. It is clear to me that he doesn’t not value this university,” the report reads. “He has used class time to say that the university is restricting people’s free speech. He has talked about being arrested during class time several times. The first instance, him being arrested as a Pro-Palestine rally he has talked about on numerous occasions. The second occasion, 10/10/24 he talked about being arrested for trying to shut down the Israeli consulate. He talks negatively about the state of Israel and describes the war in untrue and unfair ways.”
Robinson was arrested during the Dunn Meadow encampment last April and wore a shirt that said “Not in our name” on the front and “Jews say cease fire now” on the back. He was subsequently banned from campus and is a plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit against IU about the harm from the no-trespass orders. The campus ban was dropped by IUPD around a month after the arrests, according to Robinson.
Robinson also helped organize Sunday night vigils last semester to protest the university’s Expressive Activity Policy implemented Aug. 1, 2024, which prohibits protesting and peaceful assembly outside of the hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., camping and impeding pedestrian and vehicle traffic, among other restrictions.
According to Robinson the investigation is currently in the “Preliminary review process” of the College’s SEA 202 complaint response policy. Robinson sent a 20 page response to College of Arts and Sciences Dean Rick Van Kooten on April 4. The dean will review “relevant objective facts” of the case and report to determine if the complaint has merit. The policy states that the dean has three months from the finding if the complaint is with merit to carry out this process.
This is the second IU professor confirmed to be under investigation for SEA 202 violations. Folklore and Ethnomusicology Professor David McDonald was previously under investigation for a talk he gave in August 2024 at the academic forum for the Intensive Freshman Seminar. According to an ACLU lawsuit against the IU Board of Trustees challenging SEA 202, McDonald played a video of protesters opposing the war in Gaza as an example of using one’s voice as an instrument of protest during his talk. Four complaints were filed against him for SEA 202 violations but all were ultimately dismissed.
McDonald confirmed he was previously under investigation in an email to the IDS but declined to comment.
