Faculty chides ‘cowardly’ Purdue response on bill targeting higher ed
University Senate votes 81-5 to opposed Senate Bill 202, a tenure reform effort professors, student leaders say will stifle academic freedom on Indiana campuses
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And thanks to sponsorship from the Presidential Lecture Series at Purdue. Join Purdue President Mung Chiang and Rev. John I. Jenkins, who has served as the president of the University of Notre Dame for nearly two decades, for a discussion at 7 p.m. Feb. 29 in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall. This event is free and open to the public with a general admission ticket. Learn more and reserve your seat: purdue.edu/president/lecture-series.
FACULTY CHIDES ‘COWARDLY’ PURDUE RESPONSE ON BILL TARGETING HIGHER ED
Faculty representatives at Purdue put a tenure reform bill moving through the General Assembly on blast Monday, calling the measure an unwarranted effort to undermine academic freedom at the state’s universities and create suspicion and mistrust on college campuses.
The fact that faculty at Purdue felt under attack by Senate Bill 202 – a measure authored by state Sen. Spencer Deery, who spent much of his career on campus as deputy chief of staff for then President Mitch Daniels – was no secret heading into Monday’s protest vote.
Some were among dozens of professors, students and administrators from other Indiana campuses who testified at the Statehouse last week during at House Education committee hearing that stretched into three hours.
And the mood – “The temperature in the room,” as Brian Leung, an English professor and University Senate chair, referred to it – was overwhelming Monday afternoon, as the faculty senators recounted an overload of blowback in their departments against Senate Bill 202.
But during a University Senate session that finished with an 81-5 vote denouncing Senate Bill 202, some of the most pointed criticism was aimed at Purdue President Mung Chiang and other administrators. They were chided for taking what some called a “cowardly” stance by not speaking up and speaking out about a measure moving through the General Assembly.
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