25-04-2025
Indiana Republicans take aim at public universities
Republican lawmakers dismantled several key tenets of the public higher education system, including tenure, with language slipped into the state budget bill at the last minute.
The big picture: Tenure is the indefinite appointment of college and university professors and researchers, achieved after demonstrating excellence during a multi-year probationary period, that protects them from dismissal without cause.
According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), it promotes academic freedom and institutional stability.
Why it matters: Other states and institutions that eroded tenure and made moves to limit academic freedom have seen professors leave, sometimes in droves.
State of play: Provisions eroding tenure and shared governance — the concept by which governing boards, administrators and faculty members share responsibility for decision-making at higher education institutions — were added to the 215-page bill 24 hours before it was set to be voted on by the Indiana General Assembly.
The bill requires "tenured faculty member productivity reviews," which creates pathways to dismissal for tenured faculty members that don't meet productivity requirements set by the institution's governing board.
It requires faculty to post a syllabus online for each course taught.
Threat level: "It runs the risk of not just eroding tenure but destroying it," said Mark Criley, senior program officer in the department of academic freedom, tenure and governance with the AAUP.
Another provision asserts that actions taken by faculty governance organizations, such as faculty councils and senates, are advisory only.
Those groups traditionally make decisions around hiring and promotion processes, curricula and other academic issues.
The latest: The budget bill passed the House, 66-27, and the Senate, 39-11, a little after midnight.
What they're saying: Democrats were critical of the language and the way it was introduced outside the usual legislative process.
"For provisions of this magnitude to come up with no notice, no opportunity for public hearing, in a budget bill, which everybody knows is a must pass bill ... it's an outrage," said Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington. "They've calculated an end-run around the public to get these provisions in."
The House's budget writer, Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton, said the language was added because universities, like all of state government, needs to get more efficient. They're taking a 5% budget cut during the next two years.
He couldn't, though, answer specific questions about who suggested the language.
"All we've heard is that there was a group of people, who no one can remember their names, that met behind closed doors and decided they're going to tear apart one of the greatest universities in the country," said Rep. Ryan Dvorak, D-South Bend. "I think that's unacceptable."
Reality check: It's not unheard of for non-budget policy language to get passed through the budget bill.
Yes, but: A lot of language targeting higher education was added at the last minute behind closed doors.
One provision gives total control of the IU Board of Trustees to the governor, eliminating the three seats that were previously elected by alumni, and another requires institutions regularly review degree programs and amend or cut those that aren't effective enough.
"The universities are slowly being destroyed," Pierce told Axios. "Between the moves of the Trump administration and now these provisions ... they're going to deter the best and brightest scholars from coming and researching and finding new cures. They're not going to have the grants and the funding they need to do that kind of research."
"It's going to hurt everyone. Not just the people attending the universities or working at them, but the people who have benefited from the innovations and the inventions and the discoveries through research at universities."
The other side: Thompson said the state has a responsibility to maximize taxpayer dollars.
