The goals of the press conference include:
Under Whitten's disastrous presidency just last week, people's jobs were threatened for single events, money was diverted away from Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice efforts, top-down decisions were made without transparency or community inclusion. Her administration treats faculty expertise, shared governance, staff labor, student voice and educational support with disdain and threat.
It hasn't always been this way and it certainly doesn't need to be like this. This isn't about disagreements alone. The disagreements are fundamentally about respect. The seemingly frivolous and cavalier way in which President Whitten brags while continuing to deny the realities on the ground reveal an institutional gaslighting: It treats me and my fellow protestors as if we are a threat to the well-being of our beloved community while simultaneously aiming a large number of weapons at our students and friends in an escalation that will go down in IUs history as shameful.
My stomach turns every time I receive another bragging email. It's a form of denial. Sure we should be pleased to have garnered the Higher Education Equity and Diversity (HEED) award, but not without honesty. One of the "accomplishments" listed in the award letter was the 2022 creation of a Jewish Culture Center though the establishment of a Middle Eastern and Muslim Culture Center is stonewalled. Moreover, all culture centers on campus have been unilaterally moved out of the office of multicultural affairs into the office of student services. This does not reflect contemporary scholarship and advocacy. The rage of new fires each week puncture our capacities to move forward with both state-of-the-art teaching and cutting-edge research. What can we do? What is left for us as Whitten continues to fail us and shut us down?.
Order of Speakers: