by Leslie Bonilla Muñiz, Indiana Capital Chronicle
June 3, 2025
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on Tuesday defended his sudden removal of alumni-elected Indiana University trustees and his contentious picks to replace them.
Braun previously cited nearing ends of terms for Vivian Winston, Donna Spears and Jill Maurer Burnett as why he wouldn’t oust them early. A month later, he turned that logic on its head.
“It’s so close to that being the case anyway,” he said of the three, who are all now listed as “former” trustees.
“You can’t believe the number of individuals that came forward wanting to be considered in those slots,” Braun continued in mid-morning comments to reporters. “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) did make the decision to go ahead and do it, so that we don’t even delay the few weeks that would be involved.”
But only Winston’s term was due to end this year, according to an archived “about” webpage. Spears was supposed to serve until 2026, and Maurer Burnett had until 2027.
Lawmakers gave Braun control over IU’s three alumni-appointed trustee spots via language slipped last-minute — and without opportunity for public comment — into the two-year budget. The body’s six other members were already gubernatorial appointees.
The oversight entity sets tuition rates, controls campus projects and approves budgets. At other public Hoosier institutions, alumni can offer direct or indirect input into trustee picks.
Pushback to new appointees
Braun tapped prominent and polarizing attorney Jim Bopp as trustee. He’s best known for waging legal battles to weaken campaign finance laws and restrict abortion access.
“You want somebody that’s going to really be respectful of the First Amendment, and it’s making it clear that it (IU) ought to be a place where all views are listened to,” Braun said. “… He’s a guy that’s been for it through thick and thin.”
Bopp’s term extends through June 2028.
Braun’s other replacements are Sage Steele, a sports anchor known for controversial comments on race and vaccines whose term also ends June 2028, and Indianapolis estate attorney Brian Eagle, whose term ends June 2026.
IU graduate and House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta denounced the flip-flop, predicting Bopp and Steele would harm academic freedom in Indiana.
“Not fulfilling a promise you previously made is par for the course with this administration – first property tax relief, now IU trustee appointments. Promises made, promises broken,” GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, said in a Tuesday statement.
“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,” he continued.
Braun also reappointed W. Quinn Buckner, the board’s current chair, to a fourth term lasting one year — despite a new three-term limit in Indiana Code.
“It clearly said it’s not retroactive,” Braun told reporters. He said Buckner is “aligned with” IU President Pamela Whitten and wants to do some needed “sprucing up.”
Braun said he wants Indiana’s public educational institutions to offer both “good value and degrees that have a market here in the state,” complimenting Purdue University’s longstanding tuition freeze.
Other schools are enacting freezes on recommendation from Braun and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. They’re also smarting from 5% cuts in appropriations as the state struggles to cope with a dismal revenue forecast.
That, along with the prospect of the State Budget Agency withholding another 5% of allocated funds, has prompted Ivy Tech Community College to lay off more than 200 employees across the state.
“Ivy Tech is arguably, of the public institutions, maybe the one that is most important in this day and age,” Braun remarked.
The system usually enjoys favor among even the most anti-higher education Hoosier leaders and lawmakers for its low tuition and focus on workforce development.
But, Braun said, Ivy Tech “is part of the rest of public schools that we’re going to ask to find efficiencies. Once we get through this budget forecast — that forced us to do some things that you maybe wouldn’t have done otherwise — I’ll put the resources back where we’re getting the best results.”
(The audio is courtesy of Indiana Public Media)
