IU South Bend faculty are the most recent university group calling for the removal of President Pamela Whitten and the repeal of campus bans for protesters who have been arrested.
The Executive Committee of the IU South Bend Academic Senate said the decision was motivated by the administration’s last-minute policy change forbidding certain types of protest as well as “ overly aggressive policing.”
Jay VanderVeen, a professor of anthropology, said many South Bend faculty weren’t paying attention before but have become concerned about the situation in Bloomington.
“It's several hundred miles away. They don't have students, they don't have direct access to what's going on, so they just didn't know. So that's a good number,” he said. “But when we informed them, they became enraged.”
One hundred forty-one faculty participated in the vote. That’s over half of the full-time faculty on campus.
Units at IU Bloomington have passed similar resolutions, including the Kelley School, School of Education, Luddy School, College of Arts and Sciences, and Bloomington Faculty Council.
Whitten has begun a series of listening sessions with Bloomington faculty groups. The vote also coincides with a statement by the trustees in support of the President. IU administration could not be reached for comment in time for this story.
