After a roughly six-month long university investigation, Indiana University School of Social Work lecturer Jessica Adams will not be reappointed after displaying a graphic on white supremacy in class.
A letter from IU Indianapolis Chancellor Latha Ramchand informed Adams last month that her current appointment would end June 30. The University Alliance for Racial Justice, an advocacy organization of IU students, staff and faculty, said the decision was an attack.
Adams was initially reported to the office of Republican Sen. Jim Banks by a student in her “Diversity, Human Rights, and Social Justice” class after she used a graphic created by the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, a human rights and domestic violence organization. Banks then brought the complaint to university officials.
The graphic outlined overt and covert forms of white supremacy, including the phrase “Make America Great Again” as one form of “socially acceptable” white supremacy.
Adams was then reported for violating SEA 202, an Indiana bill allowing students to report professors who they believe aren’t fostering “free inquiry, expression and intellectual diversity.” For six weeks, Adams was removed from her class and placed under supervision upon her return.
“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 told the Indiana Daily Student in a Nov. 8 article.
By the end of the spring semester, Adams said she was placed on a performance improvement plan following her annual review.
“After careful review of your work by all appropriate groups at Indiana University, a recommendation has been made that you not be reappointed,” Ramchand wrote.
Adams disputed the claims for the plan, saying the cited issues — including course management and attendance — were unrelated to the intellectual diversity case.
In a news release, the UARJ condemned the decision and said the timeline of Adams’ non-reappointment violates IU’s own BOT-18 policy regarding lecturer appointments. The group called on IU to restore Adams to her position and reaffirm its “commitment to academic freedom.”
“This termination is an attack not only on Jessica Adams, but on students’ right to learn honestly about historical inequity and the impacts that still has today,” said Russ Skiba, co-founder of UARJ.
IU spokesperson Mark Bode told the Indiana Daily Student that IU does not comment on personnel matters.
Adams said she plans to appeal the decision and is considering legal action. She said she hopes to continue teaching, though is unclear what the specifics would look like, and remains disappointed in how the university handled the situation.
“I wish that the School of Social Work would have supported me more and treated me better than they have,” Adams said. “It’s been really sad and really disappointing.”
