The Indiana Memorial Union Federal Room, where faculty of the College held their first listening session with university president Pamela Whitten. (Devan Ridgway / WFIU-WTIU)
During closed door listening sessions between Indiana University President Pamela Whitten and the College of Arts and Sciences, faculty aired their grievances and the President discussed topics that she hasn’t addressed publicly.
College faculty, who have participated in open protests against the administration in recent weeks, collaboratively wrote a summary of those meetings. WFIU/WTIU News also obtained recordings of the May 14 and 15 listening sessions.
WFIU/WTIU News reached out to Whitten to find out her perception of the listening sessions. We also offered Whitten an interview. IU spokesperson Barbara Brosher gave the following response on her behalf:
“President Whitten and her leadership team are committed to listening and understanding the concerns of the faculty and the IU community.”
This article, while not comprehensive, touches on some of the major themes of the conversation and responses to faculty by Whitten and Vice President for Public Safety Benjamin Hunter.
On calls for Whitten’s and the Provost’s resignations
Whitten has faced a no confidence vote and multiple resolutions by schools calling for her removal for events stretching back three years and culminating with the university’s response to the Dunn Meadow protests.
The first question asked in the Tuesday meeting was whether Whitten intended to resign at the faculty’s recommendation.
“No, I don’t,” she said. “I am confident and positive that we are a tremendous institution. And there's obviously a lot of stuff we need to address to move forward in ways that are better for our faculty, and better for our staff, and better for our institution, but I am 100 percent convinced that we can all come to the table and address these things. But I don’t underestimate the amount of work that needs to be done.”
As professors took their turns speaking, many renewed their calls for her resignation. Almost all said no trust existed between them and the administration and they saw no way forward with Whitten at the helm.
“How do you intend to build trust? And I'm saying build because it's not there,” asked Leah Shopkow, a professor of history. “This is not a case of rebuilding, it's a case of creating.”
“Honestly, I'm not in a position to answer that question right now. That's why I'm here, that’s why I’m talking to you,” Whitten said.
One attendee asked Whitten if she was aware that she was perceived as an anti-faculty president who could be dismissive or hostile.
“I’m aware of it now,” she said. “I can’t say that I was aware of it more than a few weeks ago.”
Another said that if Whitten were serious about asking for ideas and suggestions, she should start by replacing Provost Rahul Shrivastav.
Shrivastav also faced a vote of no confidence and calls for removal from many schools who characterized him as an uncommunicative top-down administrator unwilling to work with faculty, leaving them feeling unable to make plans. As IU Bloomington provost, Shrivastav is the campus’s chief academic officer and oversees campus policies.
“I don’t see any reason why the Provost needs to leave right now,” Whitten said.
The President also expressed her desire to continue meeting with faculty and looking for solutions.
“I do want to come back in here and pitch spaghetti at the wall with you guys,” she said. “And it can't just be me, right? I mean, there's got to be many other places and people throughout the university that are part of this.”
On Samia Halaby, Abdulkader Sinno, and Palestinian speech
Professors demanded Whitten answer for some of IU’s decisions they say limited speech about Israel and Palestine on campus.
“There have been one or two times when decisions were made that were horrifying decisions to have to make — certainly not well received for obvious reasons and understandable reasons — but made in the context of trying to move forward and maintain the opportunity for our campus to proceed as one that's open,” she said.
The decisions Whitten referred to, which several professors mentioned, include the university shutting down a planned exhibit by Palestinian artist and IU alumna Samia Halaby based on unspecified security concerns and indefinitely suspending professor Abdulkader Sinno from teaching because he made an error in the way he reserved a room for a pro-Palestine speaker.
IU also asked the campus Jewish organization Hillel to cancel a planned event with a pro-Israel Palestinian speaker over security concerns.
In addition to IU faculty, free speech groups including the ACLU, FIRE, and PEN America condemned these moves.
For the most part, the President defended her decisions in the context of national challenges to speech, security and higher education. She told faculty the decisions were made to balance speech and safety.
Read more: Across IU, Palestinians feel their voices being silenced
Whitten also said IU had more than 80 pro-Palestinian events and 40 pro-Israel events (what she referred to as formal activities). “We were pretty successful,” she added.
Whitten declined to comment on Sinno’s case because she said it was an HR issue.
“We live in a world where there's one side presented to the media and everyone accepts that as all the information, and there's nothing I can do about that because I'm never going to violate that trust in regard to issues,” she said.
On multiple occasions, including after Sinno’s suspension and the faculty’s vote of no confidence, we have requested an interview with the President and Provost. Our requests have so far been declined or ignored.
In response to a question about Sinno’s suspension from WFIU/WTIU News in January, spokesman Mark Bode said the university maintains that it followed proper procedure. A board of faculty review found the university violated campus disciplinary policy by improperly filing severe sanctions.
On Dunn Meadow policy changes and police response
In both days’ sessions, the arrests of protesters in Dunn Meadow took up a lot of the allotted time. Faculty expressed outrage about the arrests, changes to campus policy and what they described as a militarized response to nonviolent protests. University leaders have defended their choices by citing the possibility of security threats and disruption of university activities.
At the May 15 meeting, Whitten was joined by Benjamin Hunter, IU Superintendent for Public Safety. Hunter is “responsible for comprehensive strategy, policy and practices for public safety across IU, including the IU Police Department,” according to the university.
Whitten's answers
Whitten said she believed the “vast majority” of protesters came with good intentions, but she “came to the conclusion that the encampments were not something that could be tolerated.”
“When people are bringing in wooden shields, or there's evidence of mace, or what I've learned are called ‘creek rocks,’ if you will — they’re used as weapons — that can’t be interpreted as totally peaceful,” Whitten said.
WFIU/WTIU News has requested body camera footage from the ISP and IUPD.
One professor said that what Whitten and Hunter claimed were shields were Palestinian flags painted on pieces of wood and rocks were being used to hold down flyers. Pepper spray is permitted under IU’s weapons policy.
Whitten also referenced “information from multiple sources inside and outside (the university) that there were intentions beyond just the expression of free speech, which we’ve been very clear has never been impacted.”
Anthropology professor Shane Greene pushed back. “We prioritize evidence, not vague assertions of things that might somewhere exist out in the world, right?”
Whitten responded that facts matter but balancing safety with speech is a challenging job considering the global context. She added that the decision to call in state police was due to the limited staffing of the IUPD.
Professors also took objection to a last-minute change to a campus policy that enabled police to arrest students for putting up tents in the daytime. IU changed the policy less than 24 hours before the protest started. The university distributed fliers announcing the policy change that morning.
The policy also says “the university should not use physical force to enforce these rules. In cases of non-compliance, the university should use the legal process to enforce its legal rights.”
The President expressed regret for how the last-minute change to the Dunn Meadow assembly policy happened but wouldn’t say whether she believed it was the wrong choice.
“I think it was a horrible position to be in, and I want to correct things so that we're never in that position again,” Whitten said.
She largely blamed the assembly policy as it was written by IU students and the Dean of Students during the Vietnam War protests. Whitten said the policy should be “cleared up.”
“We have an old 1969 — calling it a policy is kind,” she said. “If you look through it, it's ambiguous and confusing and 50-something years old, right?”
Professors disagreed, saying they’d read the policy and found it unambiguous.
She added that IU Police and staff asked demonstrators to remove tents before enforcing the new policy.
“There were people there, for whatever reason, who opted to not comply with that,” she said. “And that's how things work.”
Faculty who were at the protests countered saying they saw no evidence of violence, few attempts to deescalate and successful non-confrontational approaches to encampments at places like Michigan State and Northwestern.
The university has not yet released any details on plans to change the Dunn Meadow policy.
Faculty asked Whitten to apologize for calling the state police. She did not.
Hunter's answers
Hunter said the protests were part of a larger movement to “maneuver and use college campuses.” This was evidenced, he said, by the similar tactics used by protesters across America.
“We know from about December that there was a national movement to organize that has been from foreign actors to domestic actors. There has been millions of dollars poured into a game plan,” he said, without naming the foreign actor. He added there were things he can’t talk about that he was briefed on by the Indiana State Police and FBI.
WFIU/WTIU News asked Hunter to elaborate on his foreign actor claims and briefings by outside agencies. IUPD spokesperson Hannah Skibba said Hunter would not provide additional information about those comments.
“We started tracing subgroups of student leadership. So now PSC (Palestine Solidarity Committee) has pretty much stopped their Instagram,” Hunter said. “Now they’ve created an IU divestment group. And so these are all things that we've seen at multiple college campuses across the country because they're getting organized.”
Hunter brought up protesters disrupting campus visits and interrupting meetings with Crane.
“So, how do you deescalate those situations?”
Faculty objected that it was Hunter’s decision to bring in militarized police that escalated an otherwise peaceful protest. They also objected to the ISP’s use of SWAT teams, armored vehicles and dogs.
“The dogs you saw by the State Police you could walk up and pet,” he responded.
Faculty asked if Hunter would apologize.
“I’d leave that up to Doug Carter,” he said, referring to the Indiana State Police Superintendent. “They’re the ones that went in. They’re the ones that decided to make arrests.”
On political attacks against IU faculty
IU faculty have been in the political crosshairs for the past few years, from a School of Medicine professor who was singled out by Attorney General Todd Rokita after discussing an abortion she performed, to researchers at the Kinsey Institute who say they’ve faced threats based on conspiracy theories. In both cases, the university put out statements of support, but faculty felt they weren’t forceful or timely.
The most recent incident to rile faculty was an op-ed by Congressman Jim Banks (R, IN-03) who described faculty as immature and out-of-touch for their no-confidence vote in Whitten and support of student protesters.
History professor Maria Bucur asked why Whitten hadn’t made a public statement defending faculty from Banks’ attacks.
“Every university president throughout the country, no matter what they say, it’s not enough,” Whitten responded. “Sometimes you have to sit back and take it, and absorb it, and try to move forward.”
“You are letting this guy write the narrative,” Bucur replied. “You do nothing to protect this university and our reputation. And you say you have to move on? No, there's no moving on from this.”
On budget and administrative confusion
Many faculty said uncertainty around the upcoming 2025 budget, imposed austerity by the university and limited opportunities to post job openings were impairing their ability to plan and do their jobs.
They took issue in particular with IU’s Faculty 100 initiative. The program was meant to increase the number of tenure-track faculty in research areas prioritized by the administration, information technology and life sciences. Traditionally, hiring decisions are made by departments, and department chairs present in the meeting said they would be unable to meet their own teaching needs if they only invested in those areas.
David Polly, chair of the department of earth and atmospheric sciences, identified several behaviors by the administration that he felt impaired the functioning of the university: its regular insertion into day-to-day decisions, a new administrative hierarchy with little connection to IU, poor communication, and reckless management of campus finances.
“IU scholarships is a mess, course planning is a mess, external review planning is a mess, lab renovation is a mess, space allocation is a mess,” he said. “They really all stem in my opinion from those four leadership styles.”
Whitten appeared to agree with faculty on the basic premise that university finances were unclear to the point of becoming a detriment.
“We have many, many expenses not even booked. They're not booked in recurring ways,” she said. “We'll buy a piece of software, we’ll spend half a million, we'll need a half million from here on out to support it, but nobody budgets. It's not the college, it's the entire university.”
With regard to the perceived lack of clarity and austerity measures, the President said shifting to an optimal fiscal strategy could take years.
“I would ask for a little grace,” she said.
Editor’s note: Faculty spoke at the sessions with the understanding that their comments would not be published by the press. We only named faculty who gave us permission to use their quotes.
