After retired faculty were removed from the Indiana University Bloomington Faculty Council, its current members are endorsing efforts to challenge that policy and Indiana law.
The council formally thanked three IU professors — Alex Tanford, Steven Sherman and Russ Skiba — for suing over the removal of emerita faculty from university governance.
The IU Board of Trustees changed the makeup of the faculty council through a new university policy, following legislators’ quiet additions to the state budget that changed decision-making in Indiana colleges and universities.
The faculty council also called on the Board of Trustees to rescind or amend IU’s policy.
Council member Moira Marsh introduced the resolution at a meeting before it passed Tuesday afternoon. Marsh stressed the contributions made by Tanford, Sherman and Skiba, and she thanked the dozens of faculty members who showed up to support the resolution.
“Okay, there are three old white guys here who are named in this resolution, but they're not the only ones,” Marsh said. “The emerita contribute a lot.”
Emerita faculty have historically served on the faculty council, task forces and other forms of university leadership. David Stake, a council member and professor, said removing emerita faculty wastes resources and decades of knowledge.
“And now their wisdom, your wisdom, offered for free, is rejected,” Stake said. “They've worked to build a community of scholars, and now they're ostracized. Banished.”
At the department level, David McDonald, professor and council member, said emerita faculty contribute vital work.
“At the smaller level in my department, our emeritus faculty are incredibly essential to co chairing dissertations, serving on qualifying exam committees, being a part of the intellectual community of our department, recruiting students to our campus,” McDonald said.
David Daleke, dean of the IU Graduate School Bloomington, said emerita faculty are still permitted to serve on academic committees and the roles shared by McDonald.
IU Bloomington Chancellor David Reingold said he and everyone else at the meeting hold emerita faculty in the highest regard.
“I think this room is, I would imagine, unanimous in the belief that the emeritus faculty deserve much praise, much recognition, and nothing but our full support,” Reingold said.
The changes to emerita representation come as IU administrators encourage faculty to retire as a cost-cutting measure. But the policy and the university is making retirement less attractive, Stake said, and they’re ostracizing faculty.
“The ostracism message says, ‘If you want to devote your career or your life to a university, don't do it here,’” Stake said. “‘And if you're already here and you care, never retire, because you will become one of them, not us.’”
