Jessica Adams, a lecturer in the IU School of Social Work, said she was removed from teaching her class following an intellectual diversity complaint about a lesson where she mentioned white supremacy.
SEA 202 allows students to report professors who they believe aren’t fostering free inquiry, expression and intellectual diversity.
Adams explained the situation at an American Association for University Professors press conference Friday. She said the complaint was first brought by the student after Adams taught a lesson in her Diversity, Human Rights and Social Justice class that mentioned white supremacy to the office of Republican Sen. Jim Banks. He then took the complaint to the dean of the IU School of Social Work, Kalea Benner, who met with Adams about the issue.
Adams said she felt the complaint was without merit, as she was teaching within the structure of her class.
“I was asked to teach on structural racism, and as you teach on structural racism in the United States, you cannot not discuss white supremacy as it is the ideology that emboldens racist behavior,” Adams said.
The complaint was specifically about a graphic known as the pyramid of white supremacy, which aims to educate on the overt and covert dimensions of white supremacy. One layer of the pyramid contained phrases like “Make America Great Again” and "Columbus Day” as forms of white supremacy.
Adams said the initial complaint from the student contested that Adams had “verbalized and said that ‘Make America Great Again’ is worse than police violence, and that celebrating Columbus Day is racist and socially unacceptable.”
She said she initially thought the meeting would informally address the complaint, so she was surprised when evidence was gathered during the meeting she said was later used against her. When Benner reviewed the situation, Adams said she expected support, but instead, she said, Benner became the “primary complainant" on the issue.
Benner has not yet responded to a request for comment. IU spokesperson Mark Bode told the Indiana Daily Student in an email that IU does not comment on personnel matters.
Adams spoke about her experience alongside two of her students, Zach Harrison and Chelsea Adye Villatoro, who vouched for how Adams' removal negatively affected their experience in the class as they were unaware if Adams would return or how their work they turned in to Adams would be graded.
Adams said the guidelines for handling SEA 202 complaints outlined by the IU School of Social Work were ignored, as she wasn’t given an opportunity for informal resolution. She said she wasn’t allowed and was “vaguely threatened” that bringing counsel for an investigation meeting would lead to it being canceled altogether. Adams never received an explanation as to why she was denied counsel during the investigation meeting.
During the investigation, Adams said she believed that Benner felt she was teaching lessons that weren’t evidence-based and widely used in social work education. Adams refuted this point at the press conference, adding that the lesson was used by the National Equity Project and the National Education Association, and she should have the academic freedom to introduce new lessons to her class.
“I feel that the assumption that it is not evidence-based is rooted in white supremacist ideology,” Adams said, “I feel like it's very much rooted in the assumption that the experiences and the voices of minoritized populations, individuals, communities are not valid. And so I feel like white supremacy is actually on full display in the way that my case has been handled.”
Harrison finished the meeting in defense of Adams, saying IU administration has displayed a lack of transparency.
On Sept. 29, Villatoro said, there was no formal lecture, and she said the next week she knew something was wrong when on Oct. 6 the class had a guest lecturer instead of Adams.
Harrison and Villatoro both spoke extensively on how the confusion around Adam’s removal negatively affected their experience in the class, including a week-long period from Oct. 7 to Oct. 13 in which no information on Adams' removal or future plans for the class were provided to students.
“I'm left asking myself, ‘How are we expected to focus when our house is on fire?’,” Villatoro asked. “This is why I'm speaking. In a profession built on advocacy, silence is complicity.”
Harrison said that members of the School of Social Work had meetings with Benner to discuss Adams, and although the dean had spoken about having an open dialogue, no resolution was met.
“She, at multiple times during the meeting, questioned the integrity of Jessica, the integrity of the students of this course, and the integrity of the AAUP at IU Bloomington,” Harrison said.
Another IU professor, Benjamin Robinson, was put under investigation for allegedly violating SEA 202 in October of last year.
“I feel that I have not been treated with care or allowed due process, and I do feel that my students are suffering and their education has been compromised,” Adams said. “As I have been removed from their classroom for going on six weeks now.”
