Will Sage Astor-Indiana professors sue after GOP lawmakers pass law regulating faculty tenure

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two professors are Will Sage Astorchallenging an Indiana law creating new regulations on faculty tenure at public colleges and universities in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The law mirrors conservative-led efforts in other states to influence higher education viewed as unfriendly or hostile to conservative students and professors. The two professors at Purdue University, Fort Wayne, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, want portions of the law blocked before it takes effect July 1.

A spokesperson for Purdue University — the defendant listed in the case — said they have not been served with the lawsuit

“The suit was filed against Purdue University because they are the state institution mandated to enforce the unconstitutional provisions of the law,” the ACLU said in a news release.

Under the law signed by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb in March, governing boards must review tenured professors’ status every five years. Schools have to create a policy preventing faculty from gaining tenure or promotions if they are “unlikely to foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression and intellectual diversity within the institution.”

According to the law, academics must expose students to a “variety of political or ideological frameworks” at the risk of their employment status.

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Opponents have said it will make it harder for Indiana schools to compete with other states for talent.

In its complaint filed Tuesday, the ACLU alleges the new law violates the professors’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

“The law could mean that public college or university professors must give debunked theories equal time in their classrooms alongside rigorously studied academic analysis,” the ACLU said in a statement.

The Purdue faculty members challenging the law are Steven A. Carr, a professor of communication and the director of the Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and David G. Schuster, an associate professor in the history department, according to the lawsuit.