Over 100 IU South Bend faculty vote for President Whitten's termination after protest arrests
SOUTH BEND — An Indiana University South Bend faculty body has called for IU President Pam Whitten to be fired, joining hundreds of professors at the college's Bloomington campus who want Whitten out for her perceived encroachment on academic freedom and her handling of recent pro-Palestinian student protests.
Roughly three-quarters of IUSB's Academic Senate, a governing structure in which faculty can share ideas and make recommendations about academic affairs, voted on Wednesday for the university's Board of Trustees to remove Whitten. While 21 members voted no and 16 abstained, 104 faculty voted yes.
Even more IUSB faculty supported a second motion to rescind the "unnecessary and excessive punishments" imposed on many of the nearly 60 students and faculty members arrested following the Bloomington protests. Some have been banned for campus for one or five years. On this proposal, 118 faculty voted yes while 16 voted no and seven abstained.
"President Whitten, through her actions over the past three years, has forfeited her claim to legitimacy," Jake Mattox, an English professor who leads the IUSB chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said in a statement.
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Though faculty have distrusted Whitten throughout her three-year tenure, Mattox said, the president has endured a barrage of criticism in recent weeks. IUSB faculty appear to be the first from an IU satellite campus to call for her removal.
Hundreds of faculty members at IU Bloomington voted no-confidence in Whitten in mid-April for her "encroaching on both academic freedom and shared governance."
Later that month, she oversaw the push to change a policy governing the use of signs and tents in protests on the Bloomington campus just one day before students planned to form a pro-Palestinian encampment. Confusion over the policy apparently led IU police and Indiana State Police to arrest dozens of protesters. Since the arrests, faculty in eight of IU's 12 colleges have called for Whitten's termination with votes or letters and local government officials have denounced the university's response.
In early May, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sued Whitten and IU's Board of Trustees for violating the First Amendment rights of three pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested and banned from a public lawn for a year.
"President Whitten’s actions have shown that she does not trust or respect the faculty of Indiana University," Moira Marsh, a librarian at IU Bloomington and president of Indiana's statewide AAUP, said in a statement. "After three years of secrecy, failure to collaborate, and ... intimidation tactics, the faculty have lost any trust they had in her leadership, and I cannot see how she can win it back."
In a statement following the protests in late April, Whitten said administrators changed the policy governing free assembly to preempt threats of violence and antisemitism documented on other campuses. She promised an "unwavering" commitment to free speech and said she'd engage with faculty as well as community members to discuss long-term solutions.
"In our decision to engage the IU Police Department and the Indiana State Police, we aimed to balance each of these concerns: legitimate safety concerns related to un-regulated encampments and our commitment to free speech," Whitten wrote.
IU's Board of Trustees — a nine-member governing body, three of whom are elected by IU alumni while Indiana's governor appoints the other six — on Wednesday released a statement reiterating its support for Whitten. Members said Whitten agreed to commission an independent review of the campus climate to inform the path forward.
"With strong leadership, President Whitten has guided our university to many positive accomplishments under adverse conditions and continues to enjoy our support," the statement reads. "We are confident she can and will rise to this challenge."
Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: IU South Bend faculty want Pamela Whitten fired after protest arrests
