Votes of No Confidence in Whitten’s Administration

On Monday, February 5, 2024, the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition (IGWC) passed a vote of no confidence in IU President Pamela Whitten’s Administration. The vote of no confidence comes as a result of President Whitten’s failure to respond to an IGWC demand, signed by 1,300 graduate employees, for a union election and a living wage, continuing to ignore the majority of graduate workers’ attempts to initiate a bargaining relationship with the IU Administration.

The vote of no confidence also cites the recent suspension of Professor Abdulkader Sinno and the cancellation of IU alumna Samia Halaby’s exhibition as evidence that the Whitten administration is not only acting against the best interests of the university but is also suppressing fundamental rights.

IU Bloomington departments and organizations have joined IGWC in passing their own votes of no confidence in Whitten’s Administration:

• Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine - Graduate Student Association

• Department of Germanic Studies - Graduate Student Steering Committee

• Department of Religious Studies - Graduate Religious Student Association

• Department of Sociology - Graduate Student Association

• Department of History - Graduate Student Association

• Media School Graduate Student Association

• Graduate and Profession Student Government (GPSG)

• Graduate Association of Students in Philosophy

• Department of Political Science - Graduate Student Association

• Jewish Studies Graduate Student Association

• Art History Association of Graduate Students

• Comparative Literature Student Advisory Board

• Anthropology Graduate Student Association