Faculty members in public universities could be disciplined or fired, even those with tenure, if they are found to fall short of the new requirements.

Alice Pawley, a professor of engineering education at Purdue University, said that many faculty members in Indiana were angered by the new restrictions, and that “nobody trusts that this is actually going to be fairly applied.” Many felt discouraged about their job security, believing it would be at the mercy of trustees who are not experts in their fields and would be making decisions on the basis of highly subjective criteria, Dr. Pawley said.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    511·
    8 months ago

    Under the Indiana law, which goes into effect in July, university trustees may not grant tenure or a promotion to faculty members who are deemed “unlikely” to promote “intellectual diversity” or to expose students to works from a range of political views. Trustees also may withhold tenure or promotion from those who are found “likely” to bring unrelated political views into the courses they are teaching.

    Before people dismiss this, Indiana is actually pretty big for engineering, medical/chemical, teaching, journalism, and even human sexuality.

    Other colleges will step up, but this could potentially destroy scientific institutions that have been around for decades.

    A bunch of important science has come out of Indiana for whatever strange reason.

    • ryathal
      141·
      8 months ago

      The Midwest in general has always been an academic powerhouse.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        301·
        8 months ago

        Sometimes it makes sense tho, like Ohio and aerospace.

        If you’re born and raised in Ohio, you’d want to get as far away from the planet as you could too.

    • SandbagTiara2816@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      7·
      8 months ago

      Indiana has the second or third largest naval base in the country - Crane Naval Base. Oddly, it’s nowhere near water in the middle of nowhere in the southern part of the state. The military and defense contractors do a lot of recruiting for engineers at Purdue.