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As a second-year graduate student at Indiana University, I am outraged and sickened by how IU leadership chose to respond to Governor Mike Braun’s executive order to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion. Or more accurately, how they utterly failed to respond.
Rather than advocate for IU’s core values or speak out in any way against the federal government’s blatant overreach and authoritarian interference in public education, they chose the path of least resistance — and in my opinion, cowardice: silence, surrender and self-preservation. The university didn’t just “comply” with this executive order; it rolled over. DEI programs were gutted overnight with no transparency, no planning and not even the decency of an explanation. That alone would be shameful.
But to then hand President Pamela Whitten a 28% raise (amounting to nearly $200,000, more than most IU graduates will ever earn in a year) is morally bankrupt. It signals exactly what this administration values: consolidation of power, political safety and obscene compensation for those at the top. Never mind the students. Never mind the mission of public education.
Let’s be clear: IU did not dismantle DEI programs because it believed in doing so. It did so because it was told to, and its leadership, entrusted to represent a 200-year-old public institution with civic responsibility at its core, chose not to defend its values, its students, or its history. That is not leadership. That is institutional cowardice.
And what of the Board of Trustees? Stripped of alumni-elected seats and now appointed entirely by the governor; the board was silent. They approved another bonus for the president in June while equity programs were slashed. At a time when students, faculty and staff were looking for a moral compass, all we got was budget compliance and executive self-congratulation.
This administration has made its priorities clear. As programs are cut, offices are closed, and support systems disappear, IU leadership remains silent. The people most impacted are left without answers, without advocacy, and without representation. The message is clear: this administration will not fight for you.
To make matters worse, recent credible reporting has surfaced that President Whitten plagiarized portions of her 1996 dissertation — an academic offense that would get any graduate student sanctioned, if not expelled. IU claims an “independent review” cleared her, yet the university refuses to release the report. It’s hard to take claims of accountability seriously when transparency is nowhere in sight.
IU was built on principles of civic duty, leadership and justice. Today, it is led by those too cowardly to stand for any of them. Now we know better. And I, for one, feel a little less proud to be a Hoosier.
Sam Roll (he/him) is a second year Masters of Public Administration student with a concentration in Policy Analysis
