IU trustees step toward transparency, despite possible violation

The IU Board of Trustees held an open committee meeting Monday on Zoom. That’s a bigger deal than it might seem.

In the past several years, no committee sessions have been open to the public outside of the four regular annual meetings required by law.

Recently appointed trustee James Bopp Jr., an advocate for First Amendment and conservative causes, thanked nominating committee chair J. Timothy Morris for the unusual transparency.

“I want to compliment you on making those significant steps toward openness and transparency, which course Gov. Braun has called for,” he said. Beside the publicly accessible Zoom link, he pointed to the notice released last week announcing the topic of the meeting, including a description of officers’ roles and board bylaws.

The nominating committee unanimously approved a slate of candidates for board offices it had announced in a schedule released last week. New Braun pick David Hormuth was nominated as board chair to replace Quinn Buckner, who has served in that position since 2021. Another Braun appointee, Marilee Springer, was nominated for co-chair.

Bopp butted heads with other board members at his first board meeting over what he called a lack of transparency.

“I was really distressed at our June meeting, in my first meeting, when we were sitting there talking about a code of conduct for the trustees, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, has anybody seen these?’” he said. “I found out that it was only the trustees and a few administrators.”

Still, the board may have violated the law once again.

The nominating committee held a closed meeting Aug. 15 to discuss the slate of Board officers. It cited an exemption in Indiana’s open-door law that allows the board to discuss the job performance evaluation of individual employees.

However, trustees aren’t considered employees of the university and might not be covered under the exemption.

Indiana’s public access counselor has ruled against the trustees for violating the Open Door Law at their executive meetings before, including last year in response to a complaint by WFIU/WTIU.

The trustees held another full-board executive session earlier this month, but wouldn’t say what they discussed.