Scott Boden officially stepped into his role as dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine on Tuesday, but some students and faculty have raised concerns about his hiring.
The school spans nine campuses and is the country’s largest medical school. Boden previously worked at Emory University as a tenured professor, was the director of the Emory Orthopaedics and Spine Center and the chair emeritus of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Emory’s medical school.
Some questioned the timeline of his hiring, with others concerned about his naming in a now-dismissed racial discrimination lawsuit from 2024.
Boden and IU did not respond to a request for comment from the Indiana Daily Student.
Dismissed lawsuit
The case was first filed in June 2024 by Brandon Mines, a family and sports medicine physician, against the Emory University School of Medicine, the Atlanta Falcons Football Club and Boden, among others.
Mines served as the head team medical physician for the Atlanta Falcons and as a professor at Emory. At the time, Boden was the chair emeritus of Emory’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and chief strategy officer at Emory Healthcare, making him responsible for maintaining the medical school’s relationships with professional sports teams.
In the lawsuit, Mines alleged he “was subjected to hostile, negative and unwarranted feedback from Dr. Boden” and another doctor, “all of which included common racial stereotypes about Black men.”
Mines alleged he was passed over for opportunities and subject to office policies that others were not held to.
He also described being “publicly and privately chastised by Boden in a tone and manner” that Mines said he had never seen Boden use with his white colleagues.
Mines, a Black man, was fired from his position as Head Team Medical Physician in May 2023 after holding the position for nine years. In the lawsuit, he said he was told the decision had been made by Boden, Emory and the Atlanta Falcons’ CEO based on communication issues.
In a motion to dismiss the complaint, defendants argued that Mines did not allege that Boden and the other doctor “used racial slurs, made any race-based jokes or comments to him (or about him), or engaged in offensive physical conduct against him.”
They argued that general rudeness was not actionable, Mines had not been terminated due to his race and there were no allegations that he was subjected to severe race-based harassment.
A U.S. district court judge dismissed the case in March 2026, writing that Mines’ allegations failed to support a pattern of racial discrimination.
Two months after the suit was dismissed, Boden visited Indiana University Indianapolis for a May 21 town hall as a candidate for the School of Medicine dean position. On May 28, IU announced Boden's hiring.
Transparency concerns
The Indiana University Indianapolis chapter of the American Association of University Professors released a statement in June after Boden’s hiring was announced. The statement expressed transparency concerns following the dean’s quick appointment and the “unexpected nature of the announcement” of Boden as a candidate.
IUI-AAUP President Althea Kaminske told the Indiana Daily Student she felt Boden’s hiring moved very quickly, without enough time to consider input from faculty, students and alumni fully. She said it was surprising to have Boden come out as a third candidate after two finalists had previously been announced and visited the Indianapolis campus in February.
“It’s unfortunate that such an incredibly important position at the country’s largest medical school seemed rushed through, and there was a lack of stakeholder input,” Kaminske said. “It sets the dean off on the wrong foot with the rest of the school.”
Some students expressed concerns about the lawsuit, Boden’s qualifications and his responses to questions at the candidacy town hall.
Ethan SeRine, a second-year medical student at IU Indianapolis, told the IDS he felt it was an oversight on the part of the university to not have noticed something as “glaring” as the dismissed suit on Boden’s record.
“I think it was immediately concerning that we couldn’t find a candidate that doesn’t have a racial discrimination lawsuit,” SeRine said. “Like, I don’t think that’s a common thing in the physician world.”
SeRine said that after watching the town hall on Zoom, he felt like Boden was unprepared for the event.
“I think there was just a lot of questions left unanswered, and it felt like he didn’t really care enough to prepare to have answers to some of those questions that were kind of obvious in our opinion,” SeRine said.
SeRine said after the town hall, he and other students started reaching out to people they knew to put together a petition opposing Boden’s hiring. They felt Boden lacked administrative experience; SeRine thought it wouldn’t be hard to find a candidate who had been a dean of a smaller school and had experience running a medical school.
Boden has served as a tenured professor of orthopaedic surgery since 2001 and in several leadership positions within the Emory Healthcare system, including as chief medical officer and chief quality officer at the Emory University Orthopaedics and Spine Hospital. The two most recent IUSM deans did not serve as deans at a different school before coming to IU. Both worked as faculty members and department chairs before taking the position.
Zorah Mehrzad, a second-year medical student at IU’s Evansville campus, said a petition she helped create opposing Boden’s hiring as the dean gained over 130 signatures in about two weeks.
“Our big thing was that it felt that the school had very little transparency when it came to selecting their candidates in the first place,” Mehrzad said.
Boden will also serve as the executive vice president for university clinical affairs, working as a member of IU President Pamela Whitten’s cabinet.
