The 43-year-old center for ethics on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus appears destined for some big changes.
IU Bloomington Provost Lauren Robel has put together a proposal that calls for recruiting high-profile individuals who write or speak in the area of American institutions, media and ethics to serve one-year terms as chair of IU’s Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions.
Other changes include recruiting a new board to serve as the nominating committee for the chair, a student seminar, a regular public lecture and a reduction in staff.
“I’m really excited about the new concept,” Robel said. “I’m confident we can get someone high profile.”
The proposal comes after years of uncertainty and, more recently, a fear that operations at the center would cease this summer.
The center was founded in the 1970s through the financial support of IU alumnus Nelson Poynter, who was concerned about the declining trust of public institutions in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
Poynter was the chairman of the board of the Times Publishing Co., which then published the St. Petersburg Times — now the Tampa Bay Times — and the Congressional Quarterly.
David Smith, who served as the center’s director from 1983 to 2003, said the center served an important purpose at IU and across the state.
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