A last-minute addition to the Indiana state budget alters the structure of the Indiana University Board of Trustees, giving Gov. Mike Braun the authority to choose all members of the board.
The budget passed by a vote of 66-27 in the House and 39-11 in the Senate early Friday morning.
Alumni have elected trustees at IU for over a century. Three of the nine members are alumni-elected positions and six are appointed by the governor. The alumni-elected seats’ selection would be transferred to Braun immediately after he signs the bill.
Democratic State Rep. Matt Pierce, who represents Bloomington and is a senior lecturer at IU, took to the podium late Thursday night to question this amendment in the House Chamber. He asked Republican Rep. Jeffrey Thompson, who authored the bill, if the policy change had gone through the House or the Senate. Thompson said it hadn’t.
“We didn’t think we needed to hear from the public, or heaven forbid, some faculty members?” Pierce said.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder, who also represents Bloomington, voiced her disapproval in a Senate Democrats press release.
“Republicans say they don’t want big government,” Yoder said. “But this budget proves otherwise. When you control and censor education, healthcare and the media — and now public universities — you’re not shrinking government. You’re weaponizing it.”
The bill also stipulates that five of the trustees must be IU alumni. Other than the student trustee, IU employees will not be permitted to serve on the board. The student trustee will now also only serve for one year, instead of two. Another condition of the bill restricts trustees to a three-term limit.
“The governor may at any time remove and replace a member of the Board of Trustees who was elected by the alumni of Indiana University,” the bill reads.
Alumni-elected trustee Vivian Winston’s term is set to end June 30. She and the other current alumni-elected trustees, Jill Burnett and Donna Spears, could be removed from their positions at any time if the bill is signed.
The bill only references the trustees of IU and does not require the trustees of Purdue University, Ball State University or Indiana State University to change their procedure of nominating alumni to their governing boards.
“Indiana University is currently reviewing the potential impacts of the proposed state budget,” IU executive director of media relations Mark Bode wrote in a message to the IDS. Bode declined to comment on what the bill would mean for IU’s upcoming election for Winston’s seat.
Pierce said he received a similar statement when he reached out to IU about the bill.
“Why would our university administration stand by and say nothing?” Pierce asked during House session.
Mark Land, one of six people running for Winston’s seat, said the addition to the budget bill is disappointing and unnecessary. He said the structure of the board gives the governor-appointed trustees the majority regardless.
“One of the primary roles of the alumni trustees are to add –– just add diversity of viewpoint, to represent, bring their experiences as alumni,” Land said. “All they’ve really done here is diminish, potentially, the diversity of voices that can be expressed at board meetings.”
Gov. Braun said the addition will make a board that is “going to be a little more rounded, that’s going to produce better results,” according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Land currently works as vice president for communications and marketing at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He said he will continue to campaign until the election is officially canceled.
He said it was frustrating that he’s been campaigning for a position that may no longer be available but said the bigger issue is diminishing independence between university institutions and the state.
“IU is a great institution,” Land said. “I think it’s gonna continue to be a great institution, but anytime a public organization operates in a way that doesn’t let the public in and isn’t transparent, it runs the risk of allowing bad behavior to take root and grow.”
Land said he’s concerned that long term, the bill puts the university at risk of losing faculty and students. He said faculty don’t want to be employed somewhere their work will be subject to “the whims of government.”
The budget also establishes post-tenure productivity reviews for faculty at Indiana universities.
“They’re going to look for a state that doesn’t treat them like children,” Pierce said.
“What’s happening is just unhealthy,” Land said. “This ideological assault on higher ed is not good for the country.”
Budget bills authorize the state’s spending plan for the following two years. The language restructuring the Board of Trustees was added to page 182 of the 215-page plan.
