Indiana lawmakers join GOP-led states trying to target college tenure

INDIANAPOLIS — Legislators in Indiana advanced a bill Wednesday that would limit tenure at public colleges and universities, joining conservative lawmakers across the country in creating state laws to influence operations on campuses they view as unfriendly or hostile to conservative students and professors.

The Indiana House Committee on Education approved the bill along party lines, giving it a chance of a full floor vote in the Republican-controlled chamber. The state Senate approved the bill earlier this month on party lines.

Conservative criticism of higher education has led to dozens of attempts in recent years to limit tenure and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, commonly referred to as DEI. Bills introduced in Nebraska this year, for instance, would ban DEI programs at state colleges and universities and eliminate tenure.

Indiana’s measure is less definitive. But it would establish a post-tenure review process to be conducted every five years and create a policy preventing faculty from gaining tenure or promotions if they are “unlikely to foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression and intellectual diversity within the institution.”

Opponents at colleges around the state say it would effectively do away with tenure, a coveted status ensuring employment that can only be terminated under specific circumstances. The practice has traditionally been considered as a way to protect faculty from being terminated over what they teach and research.

Indiana campuses would struggle to recruit faculty if the proposal becomes law, professors who testified against it in legislative committees have said.

“It would have a very chilling effect on teaching and research at all levels,” said Moira Marsh, a librarian at Indiana University and president of the Indiana Conference of the American Association of University Professors.

Under the bill, faculty cannot, at the threat of their tenure, “subject students to political or ideological views and opinions that are unrelated to the faculty member’s academic discipline or assignedcourseofinstruction.”

The board of trustees, some of whom are appointed by the governor, would review professors’ tenure every five years to ensure they have promoted “intellectual diversity” and introduced students to a “variety of political or ideological frameworks.” The bill defines “intellectual diversity” as varied scholarly perspectives on “an extensive range of public policy issues.”