Indiana University-Bloomington faculty holding a vote of no confidence against Whitten: What does that mean?

The motion, presented by Bloomington Faculty Council president Colin Johnson, is perhaps the most historic, formal show of dissent to date from members of the Bloomington faculty against an administration that’s been marked by controversies about shared governance and faculty distrust.

In a petition submitted March 27, signatories in the BFC said the current IU administration was “encroaching on both academic freedom and shared governance.” The petition cited Docherty’s suspension of professor Abdulkader Sinno (which was found to violate Bloomington faculty policy), IU’s cancellation of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby’s exhibition at the Eskenazi Museum of Art, the administration’s recent attempts to sever the Kinsey Institute into a nonprofit (which IU later reversed) and the ongoing fight for union recognition from the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition (IGWC) as key examples of the administration’s violation of shared governance.

Still, it remains unclear if the vote, which wields no official bureaucratic power, will have any impact on Whitten, Shrivastav or Docherty’s ability to serve and lead the IU administration.

What is a vote of no confidence from the IU Bloomington faculty?

A vote of no confidence is a motion from the IU Bloomington Faculty Council — which is then voted on by the Bloomington faculty at large — to formally express dissent in the leadership of an IU administrator/administrators.