IU alumni blast board of trustees changes slipped into state budget

A coalition of ranking Indiana University alumni voiced “alarm and anger” Wednesday to new state policy that eliminates alumni input in the selection of university trustees and instead gives decision-making power over the board’s membership to the governor.

The letter signed by 26 former chairs of the Board of Managers for IU’s Alumni Association was in response to provisions that were quietly added to the final draft of the next state budget giving Gov. Mike Braun full control over the membership of IU’s board of trustees. The Board of Managers is the supervisory panel for the university’s alumni association.

Separately, the board of trustees serves as the governing body for the state’s largest postsecondary institution.

Under current law, Indiana’s governor appoints five members to IU’s board and picks one student representative with the help of a student-led committee. Three other members must be IU graduates and are elected by other alumni.

“This short-sighted act, written in a cowardly way so as to prohibit public discussion, tells our alumni that their voices through the ballot box are less important than that of one person who will do the choosing in the future,” alumni wrote. Four of the letter’s signatories additionally served terms as board trustees.

“Trustees are not elected due to their politics but for their beliefs about improving and strengthening the quality of education for students and operating the university in a fiscally sound manner,” the letter continued. “If disenfranchised from voting, how would alumni ever feel they have a voice in the affairs of the university in other ways? Why would they ever want to provide any support?”

Braun defended the policy move, emphasizing to reporters Wednesday afternoon that just 1.7% of IU alumni participated in past votes to elect trustees.

“It wasn’t representative. It enabled a clique of a few people to actually determine three board members. And I don’t think that is real representation,” Braun said. “If it was more broadly ascribed to, it would be different.”

He said the language “came collectively from folks in the legislature” while legislative leaders refused to say who requested it.

“All the other universities seem to have more value in terms of the education they’re giving us for the cost, and those three trustees that were being arranged by just a small percentage of alumni didn’t make sense,” Braun said.

The provision slipped into the new state budget stipulates that all nine members are to be appointed by the governor. Another section gives the governor authority to, “at any time,” remove and replace a board member who was previously elected by the IU alumni.

Braun says he’ll keep current board members

If the governor swaps a member out, the new appointee serves until the expiration of the term of the replaced member. Otherwise, any of the existing members elected by IU alumni are allowed to serve out the rest of their term.

The governor suggested Wednesday that he will retain the board’s three sitting alumni appointees and allow them to serve out the rest of their terms.

I don’t think their terms are that far away from expiring,” Braun said. “I haven’t thought about anything other than … you can’t imagine the number of people that are interested in being a trustee at IU.”

Other new rules require that at least five of the members appointed to the board must be alumni, and five must be residents of Indiana.

The provisions did not appear in previous versions of the state budget.

When questioned about the last-minute move by lawmakers to approve the language, Braun held that “some things, yes, maybe should go through committee and so forth.” But he did not make clear whether the IU provision should have been more thoroughly—or publicly—vetted.

“You look at all the other things we did—I mean, they were up until two in the morning to get it done, and there was a lot of significant legislation that crossed the finish line,” the governor said. “You know why that happened? You can ask any legislator—even the ones that didn’t come along with us—this is the most anybody from the second floor has been dealing with the third floor in a long, long time.”

“I don’t know how much Mitch did it back then, but we were wearing (lawmakers) out in a good way. We were there talking to them,” Braun said, referring to former Gov. Mitch Daniels. “And I think that was welcomed. They’re going to have a partner on the second floor that’s interested in really working with them to take Indiana into places I think we can go that no one imagined before.”

How trustees are chosen

At present, all IU trustees serve three-year terms, except the student member whose term lasts just two years.

The new provisions shorten student terms to one year and sets a three-term limit on appointed board members.

No other university boards were altered by the latest budget language.

How trustees are selected at other Hoosier colleges and universities varies somewhat—but like IU, others have also traditionally allowed alumni to have a say on one or more members.

At Purdue University, for example, three of the 10 board members are elected by the school’s alumni association, one of whom must be a graduate of the College of Agriculture. The governor appoints the remaining seven members, including a student trustee.

“When it comes to our flagship university, I wish it was paying more attention to what the other flagship university was doing,” Braun said, referring to Purdue University. “(Purdue) is giving Hoosiers real value by keeping tuition and room and board to where you can afford it. And even though some of our other universities have done it, that’s the only place that initiated it, and that was done many years ago.”

The governor said he wants “better value for Hoosier parents,” noting that only half of Indiana’s high school graduates go on to college, and many of those “don’t make it to the finish line.”

“They’ve lost time, and they’re taking debt along,” Braun said. “I think Indiana (University) needs to look at how they’re producing degrees that are more marketable, that they’re lined up with where the high-demand, high wages are in our own state economy, and start running (the school) in a way that’s more efficient.”