Protect IU-Bloomington From Undue Donor Influence
Selection Committee for the new Dean of SPEA
Money should never violate academic freedom. Over the past years, many students and faculty of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs have fought against the use of donations and funding to ideologically change the school. Efforts by past deans have encouraged and solicited money that is tied to making conditional changes to the research, curriculum, and programs of SPEA. These funds are a direct violation of the academic freedom of the students and faculty. Given the mission statement of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs to lead for the greater good, led by the Guiding Values of creating “ethical leaders, and informed and engaged citizens,” we cannot allow a new dean to continue the previous lack of transparency, fail to reject dark money, or solicit further unethical funding. To do so would directly violate the purpose of the school and devalue SPEA’s reputation as a first-rate institution of environmental and public affairs scholarship.
Sponsored by
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To:
Selection Committee for the new Dean of SPEA
From:
[Your Name]
We, as students in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and at Indiana University, in the interest of fulfilling the mission statement of the school and protecting the value of our degrees, demand the following:
1. That the selected new dean be dedicated to rejecting all funding from sources that pose a conflict of interest with SPEA’s research in the environment and public affairs
2. That the selected new dean be a candidate willing to commit to increasing transparency in SPEA’s funding and donations
3. That the selected new dean stop all solicitation of funding that is tied to conditional changes to SPEA’s research, curriculum, programs, and hiring
We urge the selection committee for the incoming dean of SPEA to consider each candidate’s career history in the environment, their personal affiliation or monetary connections with any outside organizations, think tanks, or research centers, along with any connection the individual may have to the current Dean’s Council of SPEA. We ask you to thoughtfully weigh these facts in consideration of how effectively each candidate will further SPEA’s dedication to environmental sustainability, conservation, and social leadership both within the classroom and in policies made by SPEA graduates. We wish to see the selection of a Dean who will serve as a proud face of SPEA; who will gladly interact with students, listen to their concerns, and serve in their interest; who will maintain the high reputation of the school in both the eyes of the academic community nationwide and in the eyes of the student community it serves. This cannot happen if the new dean continues SPEA’s tradition of soliciting and accepting money from donors that aim to cause ideological changes to the school.