Governor Braun and state legislators recently presented a state budget proposal that would grant Braun the authority to appoint all nine IU trustees and remove those elected by alumni. It also requires faculty to be evaluated on teaching loads, student numbers and research output, and for syllabi for all courses to be posted publicly. The proposal was passed by the Indiana General Assembly on April 25 (Photo Credit: Ben Fitzsimons / The Indiana Daily Student).
[RELATED: IU Board of Trustees candidates running for June election]
Current IU trustees
Indiana University’s current trustees include W. Quinn Buckner, Cindy Lucchese, Jill Burnett, Cathy Langham, J. Timothy Morris, Kyle S. Seibert, Donna B. Spears, Isaac Torres, Vivian Winston. Burnett was elected by alumni in 2024, while Spears was elected in 2023 and Winston in 2022. Winston has already said she will not seek re-election, but, if the proposed bill is passed, Braun would have the authority to remove Burnett and Spears.
”All Indiana University alumni should be outraged that our ability to vote on one-third of the IU trustees is being eliminated,” said Paul Helmke, a professor at the IU O’Neil School of Public and Environmental Affairs. “And is being done so with no public debate or discussion.”
The proposal also sparked backlash from some local officials in Bloomington.
“[The proposal] attacks tenure, undermines faculty recruitment, and threatens the core of academic freedom,” said David G. Henry, Monroe County Councilmember At-Large. “This isn’t just bad policy — it’s authoritarian, anti-democratic, and not right.”
Other trustees at Indiana’s public universities
The governor also appoints all 15 trustees at Ivy Tech Community College, seven out of nine at Ball State University and Indiana State University, and seven out of ten at Purdue University.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a national organization supporting academic excellence, academic freedom and accountability has supported gubernatorial appointment of trustees in the past.
“The accountability line is so much clearer when the appointment is gubernatorial,” said Michael Poliakoff, president of the organization in an interview with Michigan Public when a similar proposal was under consideration in that state. “That’s to say, a trustee needs to be a person chosen for skills that the trustee will bring to the board, and needs to be someone whose appointment can be traced back to the appointing authority for accountability. And gubernatorial appointment is the cleanest way to do that.”
Last year, state legislators also attempted to alter the process of choosing trustees at public universities under Senate Bill 202 (2024), which originally included a provision that would have given the President Pro Tempore of the Indiana Senate and Speaker of the House the ability to appoint trustees at public universities and reduced the number elected by alumni and appointed by the governor. The provision was stripped out of Senate Enrolled Act 202, although the final version did include provisions relating to faculty tenure review.