Former Indiana University trustee Vivian Winston described her time on the governing board at a speech Wednesday to the Bloomington Press Club.
Much of it focused on her declining view of President Pamela Whitten’s leadership.
IU alumni elected Winston to the board three years ago, but Gov. Mike Braun removed her this spring after last-minute changes to state law gave him full control of the board.
Although she became a vocal critic of Whitten’s leadership style, Winston said she supported the president for the first year and a half on the board.
“Pam can be very charming, very enthusiastic. I mean, I was 100% behind her,” she said. “Looking back, I talked to people who said things aren't going well.”
Winston notably broke with the board last summer after it released a letter unambiguously supporting Whitten despite a 93 percent faculty vote of no-confidence.
Winston said she was not told about the statement before it was released. She then urged her colleagues to take faculty concerns seriously.
When the board renewed Whitten’s contract in February, Winston said she was only told on the morning of the meeting.
“I had the feeling that I was the one lone person there who had not been told beforehand,” she said.
She was the one trustee to vote “no.”
Today, Winston says several of her own questions remain unanswered: will there be a fifth year independent review of Whitten as stipulated in her contract? Why hasn’t the outside law firm report on the alleged plagiarism in her dissertation been released? Why hasn’t the president’s new contract been made public?
Winston is an IU alumna, former Kelley School lecturer and business manager for WFIU and WTIU in the 1980s.
