Gov. Braun fires alum-elected IU trustees, appoints familiar faces
Roughly one month after he signed the state budget giving him full control over appointments to the Indiana University Board of Trustees, Governor Mike Braun (R) swiftly fires the remaining alumni-elected members and replaces them with his own picks.
Word spread quickly on Monday morning that the Governor informed the three sitting alumni-picked trustees – Vivian Winston, Donna Berry Spears, and Jill Maurer Burnett – of their removals by way of a one-sentence letter explaining they would no longer sit on the board.
Then came the announcement of the Governor’s new appointments – former ESPN sportscaster-turned-conservative-commentator Sage Steele; conservative attorney Jim Bopp, Jr.; and Indianapolis attorney Brian Eagle, all of whom are IU alumni. Braun also reappointed board chair Quinn Buckner for a term that will expire in June 2026.
Governor Braun’s picks soon sparked questions over his political motivations, given Steele and Bopp’s political and policy profiles. The appointment of Bopp in particular has been deemed by several as a controversial selection, with the role he played in crafting policies for the Braun Administration, as he served in a top position at the nonprofit in coordination with Braun’s gubernatorial campaign, Hoosiers for Opportunity, Prosperity and Enterprise (HOPE).
Bopp, a former Republican National Committee general counsel and campaign compliance official for assorted Indiana Republican governors, has argued a series of major campaign finance/free speech cases before the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of conservative organizations . . . and also sued IU in 2021 on behalf of students challenging IU’s mandatory Covid vaccination policies.
Steele has also made herself known among conservative crowds. A former Indianapolis sportscaster who migrated to ESPN, she claims she was “sidelined” by the network for condemning ESPN’s Covid vaccination policy and questioning the racial identity of former President Barack Obama (D). She sued ESPN, and left – “so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely” – after receiving a settlement. Since then, Steele has often offered her thoughts on various issues as commentator on Fox News.
The intrigue here – this the first taste we’ve gotten of how Gov. Braun will likely approach university trustee selections throughout his tenure.
We’ll take you back to the end of October 2024, when your favorite education newsletter pressed then-U.S. Sen. Braun over his approach to trustee appointments, should he become governor. We specifically questioned the then-candidate if he intended to allow ideological concerns to guide his trustee appointments, and he indicated that would not be the case.
At the time, he exclusively told us, “I would hope, since it’s the field of education, that we’re getting the kinds of individuals that would support what I’m trying to do because we spend so much money on it.”
The then-candidate revealed to us that he wants university trustees who will help attract talent to the state to meet market needs. “Their main job would be to get that education component right, and get all of our public universities doing what I think Indiana’s market needs, and that would be more STEM degrees, for sure. And make sure that we bring businesses into our state that have high wages, and then make sure we’re producing the degrees that they need,” then-U.S. Sen. Braun continued. “There will be a lot of collaboration, I think, between state government, especially my office … and be talking to industry and educators. And I feel real comfortable about knowing what to do there,” he added, noting his business and entrepreneurial background.
Flash forward to today, with the announcement of his new appointments, Gov. Braun asserted in a statement, “I am confident that these appointees, who are all Indiana University alumni, will serve in the best interest of the university and will help guide IU back in the right direction as a premier flagship university in our state” . . . and skeptics suggest that the phrase “right direction” was a double entendre.
The governor at the end of the legislative session in April had originally implied that he would let all three alumni-elected trustees serve the remainder of their terms, which at the time, he had assumed the terms were not “that far away from expiring.” Winston’s term was set to expire this year, while Spears had another year left and Maurer Burnett had just been in the seat for almost a year, so she nearly had a full term left.
On Tuesday, Braun defended his decision when speaking with reporters, again noting that the alumni trustees were still close to finishing their terms anyway.
“You can’t believe the number of individuals that came forward wanting to be considered in those slots. So with that kind of enthusiasm and the fact that it really didn’t make a lot of difference, one way or the other, [I made] the decision to go ahead and do it.” He reiterates that it was “mostly because the response was overwhelming for folks that wanted to become a trustee at IU so I think you can read into that what you might.”
When asked specifically about the Bopp appointment, the Governor defended the Terre Haute attorney, asserting, “You want somebody that’s going to really be respectful of the First Amendment, and it’s making it clear that it ought to be a place where all views are listened to, and you don’t try to squelch anything based upon what your point of view might be, and make sure it’s all within the decorum of law and the Constitution.” Braun continues, “So I think he is emblematic that the First Amendment makes sense, and he’s a guy that’s been for it through thick and thin, and he’s one who’s acknowledged with his statement that you’ve got to have an open forum for discussion.”
Here’s a detailed rundown you may not have seen of how the terms of the new trustees shake out: Steele will serve the remainder of Winston’s unexpired term, as well as a new term from July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2028 . . . Bopp is to serve the remainder of Buckner’s unexpired appointed term, and also for a new term from July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2028. Buckner is now serving the remainder of the unexpired term of Spears, which expires on June 30, 2026. . . and Eagle will serve the remainder of the unexpired term of Maurer Burnett, which runs through June 30, 2027.
Of note, Eagle, an Indianapolis attorney with no significant political profile, supplants Maurer Burnett, the daughter of philanthropist Mickey Maurer, whose transformational $35 million scholarship fund gift to IU in 2008 resulted in the Indiana University School of Law being renamed as the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Burnett is president of the Maurer Family Foundation. Of the alumni-elected trustees replaced, Burnett is perhaps seen as the most surprising, given her background and the fact that her term essentially had just begun.
The other alumni trustees were surprised by their quick removal.
In a statement to WFIU/WTIU Bloomington reporter Ethan Sandweiss, former trustee Winston voiced sharp criticism of the board, citing its failure to respond to last year’s faculty no-confidence vote against President Pamela Whitten. Winston had most recently become known to split on board votes, especially ones regarding President Whitten.
“The board’s silence, along with frequent dismissals over minor infractions, has created a clear culture of fear among faculty and staff,” Winston asserts She also expressed frustration with the board’s decision-making process, particularly regarding Dr. Whitten’s recent contract extension. “Not only has the board ignored these concerns, but at the February 2025 meeting, President Whitten was granted a five-year reappointment and a substantial salary increase,” she expresses. “I was given just six hours’ notice that a vote would take place.”
Fellow former trustee Spears, who occasionally diverged from the board majority on President Whitten’s initiatives, also reflected on the recent changes, a little less harshly than Winston.
She respectfully urged alumni to become more engaged, lamenting the lack of transparency in the legislative process that led to the board shake-up. “Without public discussion or debate, that tradition was voided in the recently concluded legislative session,” Spears states to WTIU. “Despite the abrupt way in which I and others were removed, the university remains strong and will continue to thrive.”
Bopp, in an interview with Sandweiss, says he suspects the urgency to replace the trustees may have something to do with the Governor’s call to freeze tuition at IU, and all other state universities. IU trustees will vote on next year’s budget at their meeting on June 12.
“I’m very supportive of that,” Bopp tells WTIU of the tuition freeze. “I think IU needs to make a very serious effort to become more affordable for Indiana residents. And that’s not just freezing their tuition, but that’s reducing their tuition.”
Former IU basketball legend Buckner, the current board chair, effectively gets his term extended beyond what would otherwise seemingly be allowable. There was a question about whether a new law restricting trustees to only serving three terms applies to him, but Gov. Braun contends the law is not retroactive and only applies to new appointees.
Buckner is viewed as a close ally of President Whitten, who had not been a favorite of the alumni trustees . . . hence the rumors, which we were first to tell you about, over her involvement in the legislation to give the Governor all appointing power over the board. The IU leader is on the right side of Governor Braun, Republican legislative leaders, and U.S. Sen. Jim Banks (R), the latter of whom publicly defended her last year amid backlash over her response to campus protests and the faculty no confidence vote.
Buckner’s reappointment also lessens any potential blowback that the Governor might have gotten for deposing Spears, a Black female trustee from Richmond, an area of the state which typically is underrepresented on the IU and Purdue University boards.
Of Buckner, the Guv explains, “Quinn, to me, was someone that I think was aligned with President Whitten, wanting to do some things to take Indiana into a place that I think needs a little sprucing up across the board.”
The Governor, in those same remarks also implies he wanted to set up a board to align with Dr. Whitten, who he believes fits with his vision for higher education in the state, “I’m mostly interested in K-12 and post-secondary education that we’re doing things that are affordable for Hoosiers number one, and that we’re ending up through the entirety of whether you choose to enroll after high school, that you’ve got skills that are ready for the employment marketplace to enlist our enroll, and that once you decide to enroll, especially our public schools, are giving you good value and degrees that have a market here in the state.”
Braun believes Dr. Whitten is the right person to lead IU. And, perhaps, he sees his trustee appointments as a way to clear the path for her to better implement her vision for IU.
The Governor has spent the last few weeks making comparisons between IU and Indiana’s other flagship (and only land-grant) university, Purdue University, and he essentially charged IU to be more like the latter. That’s what he means when he says he wants to put IU on the right track.
When he tasked IU to become more like Purdue, you may recall he explained, “I think Indiana 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 in a way that’s more efficient.”
Braun, making comparisons again, on Tuesday likened President Whitten to former governor and Purdue president Mitch Daniels (R), who is often lauded for his leadership of Purdue, where he started the university’s now-decade-long tuition freeze. “I think she was brought in because maybe they (IU) were looking for some analog to what Mitch Daniels did at Purdue.” Braun ponders. “I mean, he was dealing with the same dynamics of wanting to make sure, and how hard would it have been to imagine that you could have flattened tuition. And I think he started that back in 2012. That is amazing, and it set the example.”
As we have delved into many times within our pages over the last year, though President Whitten maintains a frosty relationship with IU faculty, she wasn’t necessarily on the bad side of the previous board of trustees – even with Spears and Winston occasionally splitting with the majority.
And we’ve noticed that Republican state leaders and lawmakers’ issues with IU don’t really have to do with Dr. Whitten as a leader either – more with the university culture itself, with criticisms aimed at the pro-Palestinian protests that occurred last spring, or the Kinsey Institute, which was barred from bringing in any state funding in the last budget.
The New York Times, in a report this week touching on growing Republican influence over IU, notes that supporters of Dr. Whitten describe her as a strategic leader who has successfully cultivated strong ties with Republican leaders and lawmakers. According to some of those political allies, her approach is less about partisanship and more about safeguarding her vision for the university and shielding it from becoming a political target.
Perhaps, that is why IU hasn’t quite received the Harvard-treatment, per se, as conservative leaders and the Trump Administration lean in to target universities they perceive as being “bastions of liberal thought,” as the NYT puts it.
Though, recall President Whitten did speak up against the General Assembly’s law requiring university faculty to foster “intellectual diversity” last year. Her statement, which came during the legislative process was rare, though it didn’t seem to lose her any favor. Dr. Whitten typically has remained quiet on most political issues affecting IU or higher education in general, not expressing her views one way or the other on, for example, the last-minute budget language, or on national efforts targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs and policies.
The Times story also delves into the fact that Republicans are meeting “little resistance” over taking control of IU, hence the article’s headline: “Republicans Trying to Control Indiana University Meet Little Resistance.”
On the resistance side, Democrats and IU faculty and some alumni aren’t buying into the Braun appointments. Indiana Democrats emailed a fundraising missive Wednesday asserting, in part, that the Governor was exercising “a blatant power grab to curtail academic freedom and control the state’s flagship university.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by House Democratic Leader and IU alumnus Phil GiaQuinta (D) of Fort Wayne, who in a lengthy, comprehensive statement, expresses concern that IU’s tradition of academic freedom, and its ability to attract top researchers, is at risk:
IU leads the world in its rigor and research breakthroughs because its experts have been allowed to operate within the realm of academic freedom. It’s not hard to imagine that our two new trustees who are well known for their successful work overturning a woman’s right to choose and work in the conservative media circuit, respectively, will have an agenda to limit the research questions that researchers and professors are allowed to pose. This, combined with recent Statehouse Republican actions to threaten tenure and degree programs, will limit the number of world-class researchers willing to relocate to Indiana. Why take a risk on a university system with less academic freedom protections?
Gov. Braun stated that this decision will ‘help guide IU back in the right direction.’ Republican governors of Indiana have been appointing the majority of the IU Board of Trustees for 20 years now. If the university has been headed in the wrong direction, the Indiana Republican Party objectively bears some responsibility for that.
Finally, this decision doesn’t just affect the university – it also hurts working Hoosiers. In particular, IU’s strong life sciences programs have helped Indiana’s life science, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries flourish. When we start making workforce pipeline decisions about politics instead of business, I worry that the companies that employ thousands of Hoosiers with good-paying jobs will suffer and ultimately disinvest in our state.
Rep. Matt Pierce (D) of Bloomington, an IU instructor who was the most vocal in committee, on the floor, and in the hallways about the last-minute budget bill language that precipitated this week’s changes, echoed Leader GiaQuinta’s concerns in a series of television news interviews.
The next meeting of the IU Board of Trustees is set for Thursday, June 12, and it will be the first time we’ll see the new appointees in action. There, they are set to vote on IU’s next budget and the proposed in-state tuition freeze.
Pay attention over the coming months to how this new board makeup aligns with the Governor’s expectations, and how it will influence his trustee-appointment approach in the future. He may look to other universities in the state to see how he could also nudge them in the “right direction.”