IU School of Social Work lecturer Jessica Adams returned to graduate level class after a six-week suspension over a graphic she used illustrating different forms of white supremacy.
Adams was formally sanctioned by IU at the end of its investigation, which started with a complaint from a student. Adams is appealing the sanction.
“Within that common sanction, it contained many stipulations that I will need to abide by moving forward,” Adams said at a rally Friday outside Bryan Hall. “One of them is a very high level of monitoring.”
Since she’s resumed teaching her class, Diversity, Human Rights, and Social Justice, Adams said the university has put observers in all her classes.
“That’s been very upsetting, very humiliating,” she said.
Intellectual diversity procedures aren’t public, but Adams said the 17-page decision letter she was given included additional complaints about her teaching unrelated to the initial filing.
An IU spokesperson said in an email, "Indiana University is committed to academic freedom, following policies that uphold due process for faculty and provide a framework to best serve our students. IU cannot comment on individual personnel matters.”
The American Association of University Professors Bloomington chapter hosted the rally to support Adams, as well as criticize the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s “American values” requirement for new degrees. It is calling on IU’s administration to respect the Chicago Principles.
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Adams was sanctioned under an Indiana law passed last year that allows students to submit complaints about faculty who they think are unlikely to foster “intellectual diversity” in the classroom.
Many such investigations have been opened, but removing a professor from class is unusual.
Professors and civil liberties groups have protested the law, although so far it’s held up in court.
The National Association of Social Workers defended her use of the Pyramid of White Supremacy, but it’s drawn criticism for including the phrase “Make America Great Again” as one form of covert white supremacy.
Adams also stood by her teaching aid.
“The profession of social work has a particular mission, vision, goals, values, ethics that we are trying to accomplish, and eliminating racism and white supremacy is one of them,” she said.
