Steve Sanders on LinkedIn: IU's Board of Trustees pass expressive activities policy (2024)

For a board that traditionally operates like a Politburo, three public nay votes on a major policy decision is an extraordinary development. It suggests the emergence of a new bloc of trustees who are signaling they're tired of being pushed around by a domineering president and board chair. https://lnkd.in/gpFzf5d5

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Happy to be back today at my old law firm Mayer Brown yesterday to moderate the annual ACLU of Illinois/American Constitution Society Chicago Lawyer Chapter Supreme Court term in review panel. We had our biggest audience since the pandemic. Thanks to panelists Michael Scodro, Ameri Giannotti Klafeta, Steven D. Schwinn, Ami Gandhi, and Aziz Huq.

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Quoted on a recent SCOTUS decision stemming from the federal prosecution of Portage, Ind., mayor James Snyder. https://lnkd.in/gB7CnZSN

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Chicago area friends: Join some of the city's best legal academics and practitioners (with me as moderator) for the annual Supreme Court term in review program at noon July 30, hosted by my old law firm Mayer Brown. Lunch provided. CLE available, but you don't have to be a lawyer to attend! Registration link below. https://lnkd.in/gXb2dQRY

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This year's election for one of the alumni-elected spots on the IU Board of Trustees begins Saturday. I am voting for John McGlothlin and urge my fellow alumni to do the same. Please feel free to share this post. Go to his website and read his "open letter" dated May 9. He is the only candidate who seems to clearly see the serious problems with the board's and university's current leadership and who is candidly addressing our university's actual problems. I've also corresponded with him. I believe he is the best choice for those seeking a candidate with courage, integrity, academic experience, and independence. Disclaimer: I'm speaking here as a concerned alumnus, not as an employee or member of any alumni group.

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The annual election for one of the three IU Trustee positions elected by alumni will open June 1. The candidate statements are at https://lnkd.in/grjjiyEp. People often ask me for recommendations. I'm speaking in my private capacity, not as an IU faculty member or alumni volunteer. I don't know any of this year's candidates personally. But what I have seen is that incumbent Jeremy Morris has been one of Pam Whitten's most enthusiastic supporters. During one of the very few times the trustees emerge from closed doors and meet in the open, he called her "our Beyonce" while voting to give her a big pay bonus. The trustees are so isolated and so often violate both the letter and spirit of the open meetings law that almost no one knows what they really say or do behind the scenes. But from what I can tell, Morris has mostly been there to get his picture taken with Whitten at every opportunity. Even after she allowed a sniper to be trained on students, he's never breathed a word of public criticism. Responsible alumni should send a signal that they expect better.

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The Indy Star has published the response I wrote to Congressman Jim Banks's column last week attacking IU faculty and declaring his allegiance to President Pam Whitten. MAGA Banks appears to be the most vocal and important ally Whitten has in the political world, which should tell you something. https://lnkd.in/gSHr5d8E

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The Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty has adopted the following statement by a vote of 91% (42 in favor, 2 opposed, 2 abstentions): "The past week at Indiana University has seen events that we, as law faculty members, find impossible to abide. Campus officials, without faculty consultation, rewrote a longstanding free-speech policy, quite possibly violating the First Amendment. Faculty members, staff, and students have been issued trespass bans in a manner incompatible with academic or legal due process. At the invitation of the President and Provost, the Indiana State Police, many in riot gear and some stationed in sniper positions, engaged in unnecessary force, endangering our students in a space that has been designated for more than half a century as a “public forum for expression on all subjects.” "Members of the Maurer School of Law faculty have a cherished history of defending free expression, constitutional rights, and rational discourse on controversial subjects. Our late colleague Patrick Baude chaired the faculty committee that in 1989 established the policy that, until last week, governed the use of Dunn Meadow as an assembly ground. "We join the calls made by colleagues in other schools for restoration of the longstanding policy governing Dunn Meadow and for the reversal of any trespass bans that were issued solely for non-compliance with the policy change made on April 24. We also believe that the President and Provost have exercised poor judgment throughout these events and have failed to be guided by respect for the law or for academic values. We regretfully conclude that their continued service has become untenable and that they should resign or be relieved of their administrative duties."

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Quoted extensively about Dunn Meadow and hate speech law in this latest update.

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