Other Repression
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IU is facing a crisis of free speech in all arenas of academic and campus life. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), IU ranked 255th out of 257 institutions surveyed in its 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, making it the worst-ranked public university in America. “Roughly one in four IU students reported discipline or threats of discipline for their expression, and nearly three-quarters of faculty said the administration does not protect academic freedom.” This is a non comprehensive list of the university’s actions that created this environment:
- In January 2025, IU School of Medicine cancelled its annual LGBTQ+ Health Care Conference in order to preemptively comply with President Donald Trump and Governor Mike Braun’s executive orders eliminating DEI programs in government agencies.
- In March 2025, a distinguished professor in the Luddy School, Xiaofeng Wang, and his wife, science librarian Nianli Ma, were fired without caused after the FBI raided their home.
- In October 2025, IU blocked the printing and distribution of the Indiana Daily Student, the student run campus newspaper. Ahead of the biggest alumni and parents weekend of the year, Media School Dean David Tolchinsky pressured Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush to censor articles regarding IU’s free speech ranking and its suspension of Palestine Solidarity Committee in the Homecoming issue of the print edition. When Rodenbush refused to enforce the content restrictions, he was fired and banned the printing of the paper.
- In December 2025, School of Social Work lecturer Jessica Adams was suspended from teaching for showing a graphic in her class created by a human rights organization that outlined different forms of white supremacy. Adams was reported for violating SEA 202, an Indiana bill that allows students to report professors for not equally representing “all intellectual diversity”. After being placed under supervision upon her return, she was later officially fired in Jun 2026.
- In May 2026, Biology faculty Roger Innes’s plant biology lab was put under lockdown after the FBI and USDA targeted him for his defense of the Chinese postdocs in his lab. While the USDA order against Innes did not require a full lockdown of the biology building, Myers Hall, IU yet gain overly complied without justification of any wrongdoing.