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President Pamela Whitten faces two bias complaints. Meanwhile, the university’s bias team is the subject of a legal challenge
While Indiana University defends its bias response team in federal court, its own president has been the subject of two complaints according to records obtained by The College Fix.
Two people reported President Pamela Whitten through the Bloomington university’s “Bias Incident Reporting” form, according to reports obtained via a public records request. The Fix obtained reports for the most recent 2023-24 school year.
Someone complained that President Whitten (pictured) did not properly “recognize Hispanic [Heritage] Month.”
Another person said Whitten “disrupted peaceful protesters with armored police officers.” This likely refers to when police broke up a pro-Palestine protest in April 2024.
Indiana University’s media relations team has not responded to two email inquiries and a voicemail left by The Fix within the past month. The Fix asked if the school investigated the complaints, the purpose of the bias team, how it operates, and potential consequences for being reported.
IU says the bias incident reporting system does not “impinge on free speech” or “take disciplinary action.”
However, a legal group challenging the bias reporting system said there have been consequences for even vague accusations.
Speech First is currently suing the university in federal court for its bias response team. The group alleged a student “was overlooked for promotion at their place of work on campus because of a Bias Incident Report on their record,” as previously reported by The College Fix. “That supposed report stated they had merely said something offensive.”
President Cherise Trump directed The Fix to two recent filings with the Supreme Court concerning the bias response team.
The university took the position that there have been no concrete punishments under the bias team, but that Speech First is “speculat[ing].” Its brief argued Speech First “has not even identified the specific IU students whose speech is allegedly chilled.”
It went further into the reasons why the Supreme Court should not take up the case.
Speech First argued the Court should take up the case and “end the national disunity on whether bias-response teams objectively chill students’ speech.”
The accusations against Whitten were just two of the hundreds of reports filed in the 2023-24 school year.
An anonymous individual alleged a stage supervisor “glorified” King George III and praised him for murdering Irish Catholics.
A student also complained she received “an email from [the] Funding Board that questioned payment for an event that occurred a year earlier due to a missing purchase order. Student felt this request insinuated that this organization of Latino graduate and professional students might be exploiting student fees.”
“Male resident kept calling trans male resident a girl several times and harshly insisted that they left the bathroom,” another report stated.
There were duplicate complaints made of some allegations, with many being in relation to pro-Israel and pro-Palestine rallies and events on campus.
Multiple reports were made about protesters chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free and “loud music” being played that disrupted a Jewish Seder event.
Meanwhile, a Jewish group was accused of hosting an “Islamophobic” speaker.
A national free speech group provided further analysis of the rights students must have if they are accused of a bias incident.
“If records are kept of reported bias incidents, students should have access to those records,” Laura Beltz, director of policy reform for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The Fix via email.
“If the bias reporting team has investigatory and/or disciplinary authority, students should be entitled to basic due process protections, such as timely and adequate notice of the allegations, access to evidence, and a meaningful hearing,” Beltz said.
“Colleges should focus on what they do best in order to combat bias — educating their students,” she said.
“The best answer to offensive or wrongheaded speech is more speech.”
Editor’s note: The article has been updated to correct IU’s president name to “Pamela,” not “Rebecca.”
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IMAGE: Kennesaw State University
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