On October 6, 2025, Indiana University’s (IU) School of Social work banned lecturer Jessica Adams from teaching one of her classes in response to a graphic on white supremacy that she showed in class. The ban, which lasted for six weeks, followed a student complaint made informally to Indiana Senator Jim Banks.
During the fall 2025 semester, Adams taught a class on “Diversity, Human Rights and Social Justice,” which focused on teaching future social workers the skills to address the field’s “shifting landscape of diversity, oppression, power, and privilege.” A core topic that Adams was asked to teach as part of the course was structural racism. On September 23, Adams showed students in her class a graphic created by the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence depicting a “pyramid of white supremacy.” The bottom of the pyramid focused on “covert” and socially acceptable acts, such as racist mascots or cultural appropriation; the top of the pyramid, focused on “overt” and socially unacceptable acts, such as hate crimes or the use of racial slurs. Included in the bottom half of the pyramid was the phrase “Make America Great Again.” The graphic had been cited previously in academic journals.
Following the class, a student complained informally to Bank’s office, which contacted the university. On September 25, the dean IU’s School of Social Work Kalea Benner emailed Adams telling her she’d like to meet to discuss some student concerns. Adams met with Benner and showed her the graphic that she had used in class. Following that meeting, Benner filed an official grievance using the university’s system for reporting violations of Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 202, which requires faculty members to embrace “intellectual diversity” in their teaching and refrain from lecturing about political views that are not related to their field of study (see report). (Critics of the law have expressed concern that it fails to specifically define “intellectual diversity” and intrudes on institutional autonomy and academic freedom.) Benner’s complaint included the graphic provided to her by Adams as evidence.
On October 6, Benner accused Adams of teaching information that was biased and not rooted in evidence, and barred her from teaching the class. The decision to remove her was apparently made on the basis of a second, informal and unspecified complaint. According to Adams, administrators informed her that the decision came “out of an abundance of caution.” Adams was allowed to continue teaching her three other classes.
An investigation followed Adams’s removal from teaching. During the investigation Benner apparently acted as the primary complainant and as well as a “content expert.” In early December, Adams returned to teaching after being formally sanctioned by the university. The sanction involved several requirements, including that monitors be placed in each of her classes.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about a university suspending and sanctioning a faculty member over the content of in-class teaching materials relevant to the topic of instruction, which undermines academic freedom and democratic society generally.
Update 6/12/26: In May 2026, Adams learned that IU would not reappoint her to her lecturer position and that her contract would end on June 30, 2026.
Sources:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/iu-professor-removed-class-over-100859214.html
https://www.chronicle.com/article/an-instructor-showed-a-graphic-on-white-supremacy-did-she-break-the-law
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/indiana-professor-removed-maga-racism-b2865102.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/us/indiana-university-professor-white-supremacy-lesson.html
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/indiana-university-white-supremacy-lecture-maga/
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/12/10/iu-prof-suspended-white-supremacy-graphic-returns-class
https://www.ipm.org/news/2026-06-09/iu-lecturer-investigated-for-intellectual-diversity-wont-be-reappointed