Retired faculty at IU sue to restore involvement in university government

Some retired professors from Indiana University are raising concerns about recent policy changes made by the university’s board of trustees that exclude them from participating in organizations that help govern faculty functions across the university’s nine campuses and regional centers.

These organizations help establish faculty health benefits, hear faculty discipline and grievances matters, and contribute to hearing student disciplinary cases.

In response to the new policies, retired professors with an honorary emeritus designation have sued the IU Board of Trustees and issued a resolution to the Bloomington Faculty Council asking to deem the trustees’ policy, and matching state law, unconstitutional and beyond the purview of the rights of the board.

“One of the chief mandates about what the trustees’ job is, is they can do no harm, they can do no damage, they can do no detriment, they can do no discouragement to the university. And this does all of those things,” said Steven “Jim” Sherman, professor emeritus for psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University Bloomington.

Sherman is one of three emeriti professors suing the trustees for the law and policy changes.

Despite the Monroe Circuit Court’s initial denial of a preliminary injunction, the plaintiffs are moving forward with an amended lawsuit and with other efforts to persuade the board that reducing the involvement of emeriti faculty is damaging to the wellbeing of the university.

Law and policy

This spring, language was added to the state budget detailing the rights and responsibilities of both the Indiana University Board of Trustees and faculty at IU.

Perhaps most notably, that language, now codified in Indiana Code § 21, gives Indiana Gov. Mike Braun the authority to appoint all nine members of the IU board of trustees.

But the law also specifies that only members of a faculty governance organization who are employed by a state educational institution can vote on pending matters and it stipulated that these organizations are advisory only.

Over the summer, the newly appointed IU board of trustees updated their policy to comply with these changes, identifying the parameters that faculty and emeriti faculty can operate under within faculty governance organizations.

Of particular importance to emeriti professors is policy BOT-19, which states not just that only faculty employed by the university can vote in faculty governance, but that these faculty members are the only ones who can participate in the organizations in any capacity. For retired faculty granted emeriti status, the change removes them from any previously held positions.

The Indiana Lawyer made several attempts to get a response from the university’s board of trustees regarding the new policies. David Hormuth, chairman and spokesman for the board, did not immediately respond to several requests for comment. Trustee Jim Bopp deferred questions to Hormuth.

For several decades, emeriti were involved in organizations that guided faculty functions across IU’s campuses. The constitution for the Bloomington Faculty Council, the policy-making body for faculty on Bloomington’s campus, designates two seats for emeriti faculty.

The council oversees 16 standing and five elected committees and canvases faculty and staff for consensus on academic and domestic matters, according to its website.

As both a paid faculty member and as emeritus, Sherman served in a number of faculty governance organizations. He was elected by the faculty as a voting member of the Bloomington Faculty Council for a term running until June 2026.

For more than 30 years, Sherman also served on the Benefits Committee, which develops policies concerning faculty benefits programs, including health and retirement benefits.

Another plaintiff in the lawsuit, professor emeritus James Tanford, was elected to the faculty council for a term running until June 2026. Tanford served on the Policy Review Committee and was council president in 2017-2018.

Both men stepped down from their positions on the Bloomington Faculty Council because of the updated policy.

Response to the changes

Sherman, Tanford, and fellow emeritus Russell Skiba sued the board of trustees in August, claiming that by creating BOT-19, trustees are acting outside of the powers given to them under Indiana Code § 21. They say that no provision in state law gives the trustees the power to decide who can participate in faculty governance.

They further argue that § 21 itself is unconstitutional because it was inserted into the budget bill without public notice, debate, or hearing.

In their original complaint, the professors asked for an emergency preliminary injunction prohibiting the trustees from enforcing BOT-19 prior to the faculty council’s meeting on Sept. 23.

They also asked for declaratory judgment that both the policy and the state law be deemed invalid.

Monroe Circuit Court Judge Emily Salzmann denied the preliminary injunction on Sept. 21, stating that the plaintiffs did not show a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits or irreparable harm.

At the council’s Sept. 23 meeting, Sherman introduced a resolution asking the council to support its lawsuit against the legality of both the policy and state law, calling on the trustees to rescind or amend BOT-19 to allow emeriti to participate in the school’s governance organizations.

The resolution was passed by the council, and the emeriti faculty in attendance were met with wide applause.

Both emeriti and current faculty say these professors are necessary to the fabric of the IU community.

“The professors who are working full time, we’re already stretched so thin,” said Heather Akou, a professor of fashion design at IU Bloomington and president-elect of the Bloomington Faculty Council. “And it’s just amazing to have people like [emeriti] around who are willing to continue doing some of that work after they retire…I just really can’t overestimate the contributions that they make to this university.”

For several faculty, retirement from a position doesn’t mean the end of their work for the university. With more free time, many can devote more time to serving the university community in different ways, like conducting research projects, helping students through misconduct situations, and recruiting new students.

With the dismissal of emeriti from positions within faculty governance, Akou fears the university will soon see a breakdown of support from faculty.

“They’re really not only losing out on the current emeriti, but they are destroying a system that will lead the next generation of retirees to completely leave IU in the dust,” she said.

Akou said a perhaps unintentional error in the updated board policy excludes student voices from organizations. The faculty council is supposed to allow three graduate and two undergraduate representatives to participate in their work.

But beyond showing their support for the resolution and lawsuit, there’s not much the council can do for now. They, after all, only act in an advisory capacity and don’t have the authority to make or change policy.

Sherman said he and his colleagues are not deterred. On Sept. 29, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint to their lawsuit, requesting both declaratory and injunctive relief to be granted so they can be reinstated to their elected or appointed positions in the faculty governance process.

The plaintiffs are once again asking the court to deem Indiana Code §21 and board of trustees policy as unlawful.

“My hope is that, if trustees can understand what their ruling has done, and I don’t think that they understood that it would bar us from all important and useful committees, that maybe they would change their minds about some of the things that they did,” he said.•