Most Complaints Under Law Were “Form of Protest”

Indiana University says that, out of 46 complaints it received in 2024 under a state law that threatens the jobs of faculty who don’t foster “intellectual diversity,” 37 were “frivolous complaints that were anonymously submitted as a form of protest.”

“An example of a typical complaint: ‘Professor xxxx studies the black female experience and is an award-winning teacher and prolific publisher,’” the university explained in its required report to the state Commission for Higher Education under Senate Enrolled Act 202.

The annually required report contains just three paragraphs summarizing the complaints received between when the new law took effect July 1 and Dec. 31. It says that—aside from the protest complaints—IU received nine complaints about eight separate situations across four IU campuses.

“Eight [complaints] were about political speech in classroom settings and one was about a failure to consider alternate viewpoints on a non-political matter,” the report says. It doesn’t contain further details, such as whom the complaints were against, which campuses were involved, what the allegations were, what the outcomes of the complaints were or whether these cases have been closed. An IU spokesperson didn’t provide an interview or answer written questions Monday.

Ben Robinson, an associate professor of Germanic studies and a prominent pro-Palestine campus protester at IU Bloomington, has said an anonymous student complained against him in October regarding his alleged speech about the university and Israel. Robinson, who is Jewish, said university administrators appeared to refile it as an intellectual diversity–related complaint under a university policy implemented after the law’s passage.

Indiana Public Media, which reported earlier on the complaints, wrote that Purdue and Vincennes Universities and the University of Southern Indiana said they received no complaints. Indiana State University and Ivy Tech Community College each received one, though the Ivy Tech faculty member was found to have provided various “political and ideological frameworks,” Indiana Public Media reported.

The outlet also reported that Ball State University “received three complaints over classroom dialogue or materials” and eight complaints from students against other students.

SEA 202, which established this complaint process, left it to campus boards of trustees to determine what “intellectual diversity” means in individual faculty members’ disciplines, to gauge whether professors have delivered it and to decide how much they should be punished if they fail.