Recent controversy over the IU trustee election has developed into a lawsuit against the Office of Governor Mike Braun. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of Justin Vasel, candidate for an open seat on the Indiana University Board of Trustees, after Braun signed a budget bill that grants himself the authority to appoint all nine members of the IU Board of Trustees and remove those elected by alumni (Photo Credit: Visit Bloomington).
Alumni voting rights for Indiana University trustees dates back more than 130 years. However, as previously reported in The Indiana Commons, alumni turnout in trustee elections has historically been low. Just 2.5% of eligible alumni voted in the 2024 election.
[RELATED: Who is to Blame for Low Alumni Voter Turnout at Indiana University?]
Under previous law, IU’s board included three alumni-elected trustees, five appointed by the governor and one student trustee. With the new law, all nine trustees are appointed by the governor and the student trustee will serve a one-year term instead of two.
Arguments in the IU Trustee election lawsuit
The lawsuit also argues that the law violates Article 4, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution, which prohibits the legislature from passing special laws targeting specific localities. It also points out that no other four-year public university in Indiana has had its alumni voice in trustee elections eliminated.
The governor appoints all 15 trustees at Ivy Tech Community College, seven out of nine at Ball State University and seven out of ten at Purdue University.
The Indiana Constitution does prohibit special laws, but primarily addresses categories including the following:
- Providing for the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors;
- Regulating the practice in courts of justice;
- Providing for changing the venue in civil and criminal cases;
- Granting divorces;
- Changing the names of persons;
- Providing for laying out, opening, and working on, highways, and for the election or appointment of supervisors;
- Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys, and public squares;
- Summoning and empaneling grand and petit juries, and providing for their compensation;
- Regulating county and township business;
- Regulating the election of county and township officers and their compensation;
- Providing for the assessment and collection of taxes for State, county, township, or road purposes;
- Providing for the support of common schools, or the preservation of school funds;
- Relating to fees or salaries, except that the laws may be so made as to grade the compensation of officers in proportion to the population and the necessary services required;
- Relating to interest on money;
- Providing for opening and conducting elections of State, county, or township officers, and designating the places of voting;
- Providing for the sale of real estate belonging to minors or other persons laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians, or trustees.
Additionally, it states that “in all the cases enumerated in the preceding section, and in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, all laws shall be general, and of uniform operation throughout the State.”