The IU Board of Trustees met Thursday for their first meeting with the newly appointed trustees. The board approved amendments to the expressive activity policy, gave IU president Pamela Whitten a $225,000 bonus and approved several other motions.
Swearing-in
Sage Steele, James Bopp Jr. and Brian Eagle — the three trustees appointed by Gov. Mike Braun on June 2 — were sworn in at the beginning of the meeting.
Each took an oath of allegiance to IU while placing their hand on Herman B Wells’ famed Bible. Chair W. Quinn Buckner was also sworn in following Braun’s extension of his term.
Personnel including promotion and tenure
Executive Vice President and IU Bloomington Provost Rahul Shrivastav presented a motion to approve personnel items, including new positions, promotions and tenure.
New positions included Luoheng Han, vice provost for undergraduate education at IUB, effective July 1; David Reingold, executive vice president and chancellor at IUB, effective June 2; and Ramesh Venkataraman, dean of the Hutton Honors College at IUB, effective July 1.
The board approved the promotions and tenure report, as well as the new positions.
A new policy change, which wasn’t made public before the meeting, includes conducting performance reviews for tenured faculty. Indiana HB 1001 enacted the Board of Trustees to establish a tenure review process to review productivity in May. The policy goes into effect on July 1.
New degrees
Shrivastav also presented seven new degrees — six for IUB and one for IU Indianapolis. The degrees include a B.S. in business intelligence and data science, B.S. in computer engineering, B.S. in global media, B.S. in media advertising, B.S. in public relations, M.S. in media leadership and business and B.S. in biomedical sciences (IUI).
The board unanimously approved all seven degrees.
Expressive Activity Policy, UA-10
Vice President and General Counsel Anthony Prather presented a motion to approve amendments to the Expressive Activity Policy reflecting feedback from university stakeholders and a court ruling.
The ACLU of Indiana sued IU’s Board of Trustees over the policy, claiming it was overbroad and violated the First Amendment by prohibiting unapproved expressive activity during certain hours. Southern District Court of Indiana Judge Richard Young recently blocked IU from restricting expressive activity between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and the court ruled it likely violated the First Amendment.
“Our goal, quite frankly, is to continue to try to make the policy better, to continue to receive feedback from the university community and adopt that feedback when it helps us make the policy better,” Prather said.
The motion to revise was approved, and the policy has already been updated on the website. Most notably, they lifted the time restrictions on expressive activity. Requests to use temporary structures must be made seven days in advance, which was previously 10.
Additionally, event requests for large groups of 50 to 99 people must be made at least three business days in advance, and event requests for more than 100 must be made at least five business days in advance.
Fiscal Year ‘26 Annual Operating Budget and tuition forum
The committee unanimously approved a $4.5 billion campuswide operating budget — a 3% increase from the FY 2025 base budget — and a tuition freeze for in-state undergraduate students and Indiana Partner students for the next two academic years.
The budget increase included a 2% increase for faculty and staff salaries. The budget goes into effect July 1.
The board also approved a 1% increase for out-of-state undergraduate students' tuition, a 2% increase for all graduate students’ tuition and a 2% increase for program differential costs for graduate and professional students. Program differential costs for undergraduate students and all mandatory fees will have no cost increases.
The tuition freeze was approved to make IU more accessible and affordable. The freeze also complies with Braun and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s state recommendation.
IU Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jason Dudich said adjustments were proposed to accommodate a $60 million reduction in state funding for the next two fiscal years.
Project, design and lease approvals
The board unanimously approved three new projects for buildings, leases, and renovations.
The projects include IU Indianapolis’ Launch Accelerator for Bioscience, estimated to be completed in 2027; Wright Quad’s renovation, estimated to be completed in 2025; and lease and renovations for IU in Washington D.C., including residence halls and classrooms, estimated to be completed in 2026.
Indemnification
General counsel Prather recommended the board indemnify the late former IU team physician Bradford Bomba Sr., who was accused of inappropriate behavior by several former IU student athletes, and Benjamin Hunter — a defendant in the lawsuit against IU for the expressive activity policy.
The board approved both recommendations.
Code of conduct
The board entered deliberation for a new trustee code of conduct, something the board hadn’t adopted since its inception in 1820.
A motion to approve the new code was turned on its head when Bopp motioned to send it to committee for review before voting.
He took issue with the code not having been made public or independently reviewed prior to its deliberation.
“We waited 200 years,” Bopp said. “What’s two more months?”
He also raised issues with the content of the code itself. Langham asked if he took issue with the factuality of the code or its wording.
“Both,” he said.
He cited one example from the code that concerned him, calling it “an absurdity:”
"All trustees shall comply and conduct themselves in accordance with the spirit and letter of all local laws and regulations."
Bopp expressed confusion over the term “spirit” in the policy, saying its vagueness could potentially cause the board trouble in the future.
After significant deliberation, the board voted in agreement with Bopp. They will likely vote on adopting the new code in their September meeting following committee review.
It’s unclear whether a draft of the code will be made public prior to the next meeting.
Bylaws
The board approved the request to revise bylaws, but did not disclose what the revisions included.
Presidential compensation
The board approved a bonus for Whitten totaling $225,000, or 25% of her annual salary. The board votes on the approval of this bonus annually, Finance and Audit Committee chair Cindy Lucchese said.
Lucchese recommended the board approve the bonus due to Whitten’s performance over the past year, including achievement of university goals and strong leadership — despite faculty voting “no confidence” in her April 2024. Whitten also received a $200,000 raise last February
Student Relations chair Kyle Seibert cast the only dissenting vote.
“We're facing significant financial challenges, and we have to reduce benefits for employees," Siebert said. "We're asking them to make cuts across the institution. That’s where I struggle with this. For that reason, I will be voting no."
The bonus passed with a vote of 8-1.
Next meeting
The board will next convene on Sept. 11 at IU Indianapolis.
IDS reporter Jonathan Frey covered this event live on X, formerly known as Twitter. Go to @ByJonathanFrey on X for more details.
