A policy passed by the IU Board of Trustees in June allows the university to require professors to relocate to a different campus.
Before, reductions in the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty were to be achieved through “voluntary reassignment or attrition,” the new policy allows the university to reduce faculty numbers through “reassignment, which may involve transfer of tenure home, transfer to a different campus, or attrition.”
Effectively, this means faculty could be required to transfer to any of IU’s nine major and regional campuses, as well as its nine School of Medicine campuses.
The new policy also emphasizes that university procedures may be altered to remain in compliance with state and federal law and reduces faculty input in decisions regarding the merger, reorganization and elimination of academic units and programs.
Previous versions of the policy emphasized “shared faculty and administrative governance,” while the new policy stresses that recommendations from faculty are solely advisory.
The IU Bloomington chapter of the Association of University Professors decried the new policy, calling it “draconian.”
An IU spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The policy was passed at the June 2025 Board of Trustees meeting, where trustees also approved performance reviews for tenured faculty and a $225,000 bonus for IU President Pamela Whitten, among other items. The June meeting was also the first for the three newest trustees. They were appointed by Gov. Mike Braun following his removal of the previously elected trustees June 2.
