This and that: The opening of March edition
SB202, a ‘win’ or a disaster for higher ed depending on who you ask, heads to the governor. Yo-Yo Ma announced for September date at Purdue. Indiana’s public access counselor targeted by Senate move
Thanks for sponsorship help today from the Presidential Lecture Series at Purdue. Join Purdue President Mung Chiang and Carolyn Woo, a Purdue University alumna and former Purdue faculty member and administrator, for a discussion titled “Global Progress for Tomorrow’s Leaders: Overcoming Challenges, Building a Better Future,” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, 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.
EARLY HEADS UP: YO-YO MA AT PURDUE: Purdue’s Presidential Lecture Series will feature cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a conversation moderated by PBS Newshour’s Jeffrey Brown on Sept. 29 at Elliott Hall of Music, the university announced Thursday. Ma last performed at Purdue in 2014. General admission tickets are free, available here.
SB202/HIGHER ED REFORM MEASURE HEADS TO GOVERNOR: Any last-ditch effort Thursday to corral Senate Bill 202, Indiana’s higher education reform measure, didn’t get far, as the Indiana Senate signed off on amendments made in the House and sent Sen. Spencer Deery’s bill to Gov. Eric Holcomb for consideration. Indianapolis Star reporter Brittany Carloni had this from Thursday’s 33-12 vote in the Indiana Senate Thursday: “Controversial higher education bill gets final stamp of approval, heads to Gov. Holcomb.” (Local votes: Deery, a West Lafayette Republican, and Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, voted yes on the final version of SB202.)
Deery said Thursday that changes in the House version of the bill were acceptable. One example: The House stripped a provision Deery wasn’t all that keen about, anyway, that would have taken two university trustee appointments from alumni associations and given them to top leaders in the General Assembly. Otherwise, Deery called the bill “a win for academic freedom, free expression and intellectual diversity on college campuses and a victory for those of us who believe universities should challenge students by fostering intellectually diverse communities.”
Meanwhile, members of Indiana chapters of the American Association of University Professors continued to push back, mounting a campaign to get persuade Holcomb to not sign the bill. “This bill weakens tenure while claiming to protect and ‘modernize’ it,” Moira Marsh, a librarian at IU and president of the Indiana State Conference of the AAUP, said in a release. “Sen. Deery says he wants to fix our public universities, but the cure he has put forward will kill the patient.”
For more, circa the immediate fallout from the House vote earlier this week, try this from Tuesday’s Based in Lafayette: “Purdue tries to reassure faculty after higher ed reform bill clears Indiana House. Deery calls vote on his higher ed reform bill a ‘win’ for campus. Professors stew. President Mung Chiang: Purdue ‘resolutely stands for freedom of speech and academic freedom.’
ALSO HEADING TO THE GOVERNOR, THIRD-GRADE READING BILL: Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Casey Smith had this update on literacy bill that will require third graders who don’t meet state reading standards to be held back a year in school: “Literacy overhaul bill — with third grade retention requirement — heads to Indiana governor.”
SENATE AMENDMENT AIMS AT PUBLIC ACCESS COUNSELOR: Indiana’s open records/open meetings guru found himself as a target this week. State Affairs reporter Tom Davies had a look a late-session amendment that would limit the scope of what Indiana’s public access counselor could consider in reviewing open government matters. Davies reported the Sen. Aaron Freeman, an Indianapolis Republican, has some serious beefs with Luke Britt, who has been the state’s public access counselor, issuing non-binding opinions about open records and open meeting disputes, since 2013. “He’s issued some opinions that I vehemently disagree with and I think others in our body and in this building vehemently disagree with,” Freeman said. (Anyone else sense this becoming a trend at the legislature this session, with lawmakers looking for ways to tamp down things they don’t like to hear?) Davies has more about the amendment in House Bill 1338 at: “Republican push would strictly limit public access counselor’s review authority.”
Indianapolis Star reporters Brittany Carloni and Kayla Dwyer had more, with Freeman pointed toward the 2023 struggles of the Hamilton East Public Library board. (As in, the library board that got sideways on a policy to move books off youth shelves for any hint of sexual or other potentially controversial content.) Freeman told the Star he took issues with a Britt opinion that a pair of library board members violated open meeting laws when they met with attorneys in a coffee shop. Here’s the story from Carloni and Dwyer: “Lawmaker said Hamilton East Public Library open door opinion shows overreach of public records official.”
The move pricked up ears in media circles and among open government advocates this week. Zachary Baiel, a West Lafayette resident and president of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government, said the amendment “shifts the Public Access Counselor's focus away from assisting the public – including citizens, journalists, government employees and officials – with navigating the Access to Public Records Act and the Open Door Law.”
“The (public access counselor) role has been working for decades,” Baiel said. “One must ask how this change will help? And, perhaps more importantly in this moment, why now? … While Sen. Freeman may disagree, even vehemently, with opinions the public access counselor's office has made, changing the rules and limiting the PAC to the laws as ‘plainly written’ and ‘valid opinions of Indiana courts’ will only stifle the efforts made by the office to help ensure that Hoosier public agencies and officials are open, transparent and accountable.”
Not totally related, but for what it’s worth as we’re talking about why situations and circumstances matter in public records matters … Britt has a knack for putting the conflicts into context within Indiana Code and remains among the nominees for best writers in state government. (Put Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush in on that list, too, in her rulings.) Here’s one example, as Britt was pulled several times into the never-ending drama that is Dayton, Indiana. This one, from 2018, dealt with efforts to get security camera footage from a distant police department feed to catch pranksters who changed the town signs to troll those who spearheaded the “Keep Dayton Small” campaign. I wrote about it for the J&C: “Records denied for fear ‘rabble may be roused’ after trolls change Dayton sign. After a Halloween prank trolled annexation opponents, Indiana’s public access counselor sides with Dayton police, saying ‘some rabble may be roused’ if footage is released.”
SLOW DOWN ON SAGAMORE PARKWAY WEST: Speed limits on Sagamore Parkway West will go from 40 mph to 35 mph between Nighthawk Drive to Yeager Road, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced this week. That covers the thickest commercial section of Sagamore Parkway on either side of the Salisbury Street intersection.
‘TAMPON TAX’ ON THE WAY OUT?: Indianapolis Star reporter Kayla Dwyer had this surprise addition to the legislative session: “Indiana lawmakers slip 'tampon tax' elimination into a Senate bill. They advanced a proposal this week to eliminate sales taxes for feminine hygiene products.”
PRETTY PUMPED ABOUT CAITLIN CLARK: … at least Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel is, after the Iowa star and newly crowned NCAA all-time leading scorer announced she was giving up a final year with the Hawkeyes to go into the WNBA Draft. Significant in Indiana, because the Fever have the No. 1 pick this year. Here’s Doyel: “Caitlin Clark, headed to Fever? This news is up there with the 2012 WNBA title.”
AND FINALLY, ICYMI …: Here’s a replay of Tim’s Picks, with our man Tim Brouk offering five of the best ideas for a Greater Lafayette weekend.
Thanks, again, to today’s sponsor, the Presidential Lecture Series at Purdue, featuring a conversation with Carolyn Woo on March 5. Learn more and reserve your seat here: purdue.edu/president/lecture-series.
Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.
Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
The whole executive and legislative branches in Indy have turned hard right over the last year. Perhaps they're worried about losing the super-majority and want to pass as much legislation as possible before they're voted out. Indiana used to have a centrist dominated government. Those days are over what with Rokita and Deery's BS and Holcomb, of all people, spending taxpayer money to send Indiana National Guard troops to Texas. The lunatics are out of the closet.
With each passing second, I become happier about leaving Indiana for good.