The prospect of Senate Bill 202 becoming law in Indiana has spread panic and alarm through public universities and colleges across the state. The proposed bill would establish governmental oversight of the tenure and promotion process for all faculty at public universities by requiring those institutions to deny, limit, or terminate continued employment to faculty “if certain conditions related to free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity are not met.”
S.B. 202 also establishes a reporting system for students and employees to file complaints against any faculty failing to meet the aforementioned “certain conditions,” and adds two additional alumni representatives on university boards of trustees.
The bill is similar to proposals advanced in other majority-Republican state legislatures — in Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Texas — that seek to establish political oversight of tenure and promotion procedures, curriculum planning, and student services at public institutions of higher learning. Such initiatives are part of a concerted effort to curb the expansion of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs that many colleges and universities across the country have adopted.