This story may be updated with further information as it becomes available.
12:33 p.m.
All three elected trustees were removed from the "current trustees" section of the Board of Trustees website between the hours of noon and 1 p.m. today, as first reported on X by WTIU reporter Ethan Sandweiss.
The IDS is still awaiting comment from the office of the governor and the Board of Trustees.
11:39 a.m.
IU trustee Vivian Winston received a letter from Gov. Mike Braun this morning notifying her of immediate removal from the Board of Trustees.
WTIU reported this morning that trustee Jill Maurer Burnett was also removed from the board; The IDS is working on independently verifying this information. Both were elected by IU alumni.
Braun invoked his newly ratified power to remove or change alumni-elected trustees at will, a policy added at the last minute to Indiana’s state budget in April. It marks the first time in more than a century that IU may not have any elected trustees on the board.
Winston was a regular critic of IU president Pamela Whitten and her administration during her term on the board, to which she was elected in 2022. Winston’s membership would have expired at the end of June, and she told the IDS in March she did not intend to run for re-election.
Elections for Winston’s imminently vacant seat began June 1 and close June 30, with a new trustee beginning their term July 1.
Burnett was the most recently elected trustee and daughter of Mickey Maurer, namesake of IU’s Maurer School of Law. Her position would otherwise not expire until 2027.
It has not yet been reported whether the board’s third elected member, Donna Spears, has been removed.
An IU spokesperson declined to comment at this time.
The IDS also reached out to the Board of Trustees and Braun’s office and are awaiting replies.
