BLOOMINGTON — A high-profile battle over classroom speech and Indiana’s higher education legislation has reached a new turning point. Jessica Adams, a lecturer in the Indiana University School of Social Work, has announced she is challenging the university’s decision not to renew her teaching contract following a months-long investigation rooted in a student complaint.
Adams learned in late May via a letter from administrators that her employment with the university will officially conclude on June 30, 2026, marking the end of her current appointment. The decision follows a tumultuous school year that thrust Adams to the center of a statewide debate regarding academic freedom and political ideology.
The controversy began during a September lecture in Adams’ graduate-level course, “Diversity, Human Rights, and Social Justice.” As part of a lesson examining systemic racism, Adams displayed a widely circulated educational aid known as the “Pyramid of White Supremacy.”
The visual graphic organizes forms of racism from overt acts at the top to socially accepted, “covert” acts at the bottom. Listed among the bottom tiers of the pyramid—alongside concepts like cultural appropriation and racist mascots—was former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” (MAGA).
While students in the class noted that Adams did not explicitly focus on or lecture about the slogan itself during the session, an anonymous student took issue with the slide.
Instead of raising the concern with Adams or the university ombudsmen, the student reported the lesson directly to the office of Republican Senator Jim Banks. The lawmaker’s staff flagged the incident to IU administrators, prompting an official grievance to be filed by the school’s dean…