Indiana Senate passes bill restricting tenure for profs who push political views on students, punishing students for disruptive protests
The Indiana Senate passed a massive higher education bill that would require colleges to implement disciplinary policies for disruptive protesters and also restrict tenure.
The Indiana Senate passed a massive higher education bill that would require colleges to implement disciplinary policies for disruptive protesters and also restricts tenure.
Indiana Senate Bill 202 was passed on Tuesday by a vote of 39-9 on party lines and was authored by Republican Indiana State Sens. Spencer Deery, Rep. Jeff Raatz and Tyler Johnson.
The bill would require public universities in the state to “create a policy that includes a range of disciplinary actions” for any member of the community who ”materially and substantially disrupts the protected expressive activity of another employee, student, student organization, or contractor of the state educational institution.”
If passed, the bill would require each of the state’s public colleges and universities to create a policy preventing tenure or promotion to faculty members who are “unlikely to foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity within the institution,” and “unlikely to expose students to scholarly works from a variety of political or ideological frameworks that may exist within and are applicable to the faculty member’s academic discipline.”
Under the bill, faculty who “subjects students to political or ideological views and opinions that are unrelated to the faculty member’s academic discipline” will also not be granted promotion or tenure.
Additionally, the bill would prohibit colleges and universities from requiring applicants for employment from pledging their allegiance to a certain set of policies, politics, or ideological movements.
Each public college and university in the state would also be required to submit data about their DEI budget allocations.
According to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, in reforming the boards of each school, the bill would also give the state’s House and Senate majority leaders power to appoint board members.
Deery said the bill is supposed to be a response to “declining views” of higher education, according to the outlet.
“Infringing on academic freedom is a red line we should not cross, but we don’t need to give up on these values to curb the excessive politicalization and viewpoint discrimination that threatens our state’s workforce goals,” Deery said on the Senate floor.
