Members of the Indiana University chapter of the American Association of University Professors denounced the Trump Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education during a press conference Friday.
In a Nov. 5 press release, the AAUP chapter said the compact demands “institutional neutrality” and calls “for full adherence to its own ideology and threatening to punish those who disagree” by restricting federal funding.
Maria Bucur, an IU professor of East European history and vice president of IU’s AAUP chapter, led the press conference.
“It effectively ends academic freedom and free speech on college campuses,” Bucur said of the compact.
Bucur mentioned that the Bloomington Faculty Council passed a resolution Nov. 4 urging IU and the IU Board of Trustees to reject the compact.
The resolution urges the university to reject any similar agreement that may make federal funding conditioned on ideology, that grant oversight to federal authorities over matters otherwise governed by professional expertise or any other aspects that might compromise academic freedom or institutional autonomy.
Some also used the press conference to address recent actions by IU’s administration that IU's chapter of AAUP allege coincided with Trump’s approach to higher education.
On May 22, IU closed the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, stating it was prioritizing universal access to resources for students and ensuring the university complied with state and federal laws.
Russell Skiba, a professor emeritus in the IU School of Education and an AAUP executive committee member, said the group denounces the "termination and erasure of diversity, equity and inclusion programs currently occurring at Indiana University.”
IU doctoral student Bryce Greene, representing the IU Divestment Coalition, spoke about how IU placed the Palestine Solidarity Committee on cease and desist in August. Greene helped co-found the PSC while getting his undergraduate degree.
Greene said the PSC has yet to receive an explanation for the cease and desist. He referenced the IU administration's “massive display of violence” during the pro-Palestinian encampment in Dunn Meadow last year. Indiana State Police and the IU Police Department arrested Greene and 56 others at the encampment.
Greene also referenced documents verifying that IU, or an entity within the university, held bonds issued by Israel in 2022 and 2023. The university has not provided 2024 holdings. He said that he was angry to see IU holding bonds when there are “entire families being wiped off the map.”
“This is the fight of our lifetime,” Greene said at the end of his speech. “It's the decision of whether or not we want our university to exist in the future.”
This summer, IU announced it would eliminate, suspend or merge almost 250 degree programs to comply with a new Indiana law that requires Indiana higher education institutions to have at least 15 graduates for a bachelor’s degree and 10 graduates for an associate degree.
Ann Campbell, a doctoral student representing the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, spoke about The People's 2030 Plan, designed by a group of faculty, students and staff at IU. The group identifies IU as a workplace that needs protection from the consolidation of jobs and degrees.
“IU should be managed by this mission, not by the mission of a low labor cost, high margin business,” Campbell said. “We're not a damn store. We deserve dignity. We deserve support. We deserve diversity, not just in who we are, but in what we study and what we teach, and who deserve collective input.”
The group also discussed SEA 202, an Indiana law that allows students to report professors who they believe aren’t fostering free inquiry, expression and intellectual diversity. Jessica Adams, a lecturer in the IU School of Social Work, shared during the press conference she was removed from her Diversity, Human Rights and Social Justice class following an SEA 202 complaint.
Omeed Mehrzad, a congressional representative for IU Student Government and executive director of the Indiana Student Government Coalition spoke next. He specified he was speaking for himself and not representing the groups he’s a part of.
Mehrzad addressed what he called uncertain and “trying times of rising authoritarianism," citing IU’s “unattractive boasting of crackdowns” on issues like freedom of speech, tenure and the treatment of graduate workers.
“So now we ask ourselves, what will President Whitten do?” Mehrzad said. “What will the board do? Do we trust them to defend our academic freedom? Do we trust them to protect our faculty, our students and our future? And if they won't, will we?”
Editor’s note: Bryce Greene is a former opinion columnist for the IDS.
