On May 6, 2025, Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed a new budget bill that includes provisions that weaken faculty tenure protections at the state’s public universities and reduce the influence of faculty decision-making bodies in favor of political appointees.
Indiana’s legislature passed House Enrolled Act 1001 on April 25, after provisions relating to higher education were quietly added to it at the last minute. The Act establishes a post-tenure “productivity review” process that all tenured professors must undergo at least once every five years. Faculty are to be assessed against a set of requirements established by the institution, which the Act specifies must include their teaching workload, the number of graduate and undergraduate students instructed and overseen, and their scholarship productivity. Faculty members who do not meet the standards will be put on probation and may be dismissed.
The law also removes faculty and alumni from formal governance roles. Before the law, faculty senates played a key role in shaping academic decisions at Indiana’s public universities. The law reduces faculty senates to playing advisory roles only. In addition, it gives the governor greater control over public universities’ boards of trustees. Before the law, the governor appointed six members of the board, and three were elected by the institution’s alumni. Under the law, alumni elections are eliminated. The governor has the power to appoint all new members and to remove or replace any current members elected by alumni who are still completing their terms.
The Act fits into a pattern of legislative actions across the country eroding institutional autonomy. At least 29 states have since 2023 considered at least 135 bills that weaken university autonomy, including reducing faculty tenure protections, enabling increased state interference in academic decisions, and by restricting research, teaching or expression on a range of issues, such as diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, gender, gender identity, and other disfavored topics. At least 27 have become law.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about state interference in higher education governance and operations. By centralizing power over university governance and operations in political appointees, and removing formal roles for independent faculty, students, and alumni voices, the law severely undermines institutional autonomy and principles of shared governance, and increases the risk of interference with academic freedom and free expression on campus.
Sources:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/04/30/indiana-budget-bill-contains-sweeping-higher-ed
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/05/02/indiana-budget-bill-curbs-university-faculty-power-ties-tenure-to-new-productivity-reviews/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/04/28/indiana-budget-bill-makes-last-minute-higher-ed-policy-changes/
https://bloomingtonian.com/2025/05/21/press-release-hb1001-continues-indiana-legislatures-cheapening-of-public-higher-education/
https://www.aclu-in.org/en/press-releases/aclu-indiana-sues-governor-braun-over-sections-hea-1001-target-indiana-university
https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/house/1001/details