SPECIAL MEETING - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Why has the President of the Faculty called for a special meeting of the faculty?
As President of the Faculty Colin Johnson explained in his public comments at the Bloomington Faculty Council meeting on April 2, 2024, and as he subsequently reiterated in a written communication to the entire faculty shortly thereafter, the Executive Committee of the Faculty Council has received a petition signed by more than 200 members of the voting faculty calling for a special meeting of the full faculty to consider a vote of no confidence in Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty, Bloomington Provost Rahul Shrivastav, and Indiana University President Pamela Whitten. The petition cites Section 4.3 of the Constitution of the Bloomington Faculty (BL-ACA-D8) which states “Special meetings of the faculty may be convened by the University President, by the Bloomington Provost, by petition to the Bloomington Faculty President of 50 faculty members, or by majority vote of the Bloomington Faculty Council.” Having verified the eligibility of the signatories to petition, President Johnson and the members of the Bloomington Faculty Council Executive Committee discussed the matter and unanimously agreed that the procedural requirements had been met to justify the convening of a special meeting of the full faculty.
Where will the special meeting of the full faculty occur?
The IU Auditorium, which is located at 1211 E 7th St, Bloomington, IN 47405.
When will the special meeting of the full faculty occur?
Tuesday, April 16, 2024, from 2:30 – 5:30 PM. Doors will open at 1:30 PM, and we intend to begin promptly at 2:30 PM.
Who is allowed to attend the special meeting of the full faculty?
Only members of the voting faculty will be allowed to attend the meeting. The Constitution defines the voting faculty as those tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty and librarians who have appointments of at least .75 FTE, as well as emeriti. Part-time, acting, adjunct, visiting, or honorary faculty, postdoctoral fellows, research associates, academic specialists and student academic appointees do not qualify as members of the voting faculty for the purposes of special meetings of the faculty.
Will non-voting observers be allowed to attend the meeting?
No. The IU Auditorium’s maximum seating capacity is 3200, which provides just barely enough seats to accommodate all members of the voting faculty as defined above. Because we anticipate significant interest among members of the voting faculty in this meeting, or at least must be prepared for it, all seats will need to be reserved for those eligible to participate in the meeting. We will also be conducting votes at the meeting. Limiting attendance to those who are eligible to vote will safeguard the integrity of the voting process and make it much easier to facilitate in a logistical sense.
But isn’t this meeting subject to the Indiana Open Door Law? (Updated 4/12/2024)
We do not believe so. Similar situations have arisen in the past, and when they have and leaders of the BFC have been confronted with the same question, they have generally concluded that the law does not apply. For example, in a discussion of the matter in 2005, Council leaders offered the following analysis supporting this reading: “Indiana’s Public Access Law, IC 5-14-1.5, applies only to ‘governing bodies of public agencies.’ Neither the BFC, the Agenda Committee, nor the faculty are governing bodies’ or ‘public agencies,’ as those terms are defined by statute. Quite the contrary, Indiana University is a ‘public agency’ and the Trustees of Indiana University are its ‘governing body.’ The forthcoming meeting has been neither called nor sanctioned by the Trustees, nor by a body appointed by the Trustees or the President. Any action concerning the University taken by the faculty at the forthcoming meeting would, as a matter of law, be advisory to the Trustees.” The substance of this analysis was reaffirmed by a subsequent generation of faculty leaders in 2022, even though they opted to open the meeting convened in that year to observers.
Furthermore, when it became clear that another meeting of the full faculty was going to have to be called, the first thing the Executive Committee did was seek guidance from campus leadership regarding the potential applicability of the law. Although we were under the impression that we have received such guidance, we were informed on Friday, April 12, 2024, by Anthony Prather, Vice President and General Counsel, that we had misstated the situation since we received said guidance from campus leaders, who we thought were in a position to provide it, even though they apparently are not, rather than from his office directly. Prather expressed concern with our initial characterization of this matter and asked that we make clear that the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel had not and will not provide legal guidance to the faculty on this question since doing so could constitute a real or perceived conflict of interest.
It is perhaps also worth noting that this meeting is also not governed by Section 5.1 of the Constitution, which states that meetings of the Bloomington Faculty Council “shall be open to non-members as provided in the bylaws.” That is because this is not a meeting of the Bloomington Faculty Council. It is a special meeting of the full faculty as described in an entirely separate article of the Constitution, Article IV. Furthermore, in his remarks to the Council on April 2, 2024, President Johnson explicitly noted that he was cancelling the final Bloomington Faculty Council meeting of the year, which had previously been scheduled to occur on April 16, and calling for a special meeting of the full faculty in lieu of it.
What will I need to gain entrance to the meeting?
Members of the voting faculty will need to show their Crimson Card at the door to gain entrance to the meeting. Crimson Cards will be scanned and verified against a list of eligible attendees. If you cannot find your Crimson Card, or if your Crimson Card is expired, you will be able to gain entrance by providing your IU username and showing a valid government-issued photo ID.
Why was the special meeting of the full faculty scheduled at this time, and what do I do if I have a scheduling conflict?
It should go without saying that there is no universally convenient time to schedule a meeting of 3000 people, especially on short notice. This is particularly true given the fact that the IU Auditorium is the only centrally located facility on campus that can accommodate a meeting of this size. This in turn means that our options for when to schedule the special meeting of the faculty were determined in large part by that facility’s availability. Additionally, the Constitution explicitly prescribes specific roles for certain BFC officers at such meetings, so scheduling this meeting in place of the previously scheduled BFC meeting was an easy way to ensure their availability, as well as the availability of other duly elected members of the Council who will be called upon to help facilitate it in a logistical sense.
Will it be possible for me to participate remotely?
No. The miracle of modern telecommunications technology notwithstanding, it would be extraordinarily difficult to try to mount a hybrid version of a meeting of this size in order to accommodate remote participation. Even if we could, Section 4.4 of the Constitution explicitly describes the quorum threshold and voting procedures for meetings of the full faculty in terms of the number of faculty members “present.” Members of the voting faculty should therefore make every effort possible to be present if they would like to participate in the meeting.
Will the meeting be broadcast or recorded?
The meeting will not be video recorded or broadcast. It will be audio recorded, however. This audio recording will eventually be transcribed and used to assist in the preparation of meeting minutes. While we cannot make any promises about how quickly that process will occur, both the minutes and the audio recording will eventually be made available to the faculty as required by Section 4.6 of the Constitution of the Bloomington Faculty.
Will I be able to arrive late, leave early, or step out and return?
Yes. You will be required to check in and out of the meeting so that we can keep track of the number of people present at any given time, however. Just be aware that you will need to be present at the point in the meeting when a vote on a specific motion is called if you wish to cast a ballot on that motion. Also, because we need to keep track of ballots, you will be asked to turn in any unused ballots if you step out of the meeting before a vote on the motions related to those ballots has been called. If you return later, new ballots for any as-yet uncalled votes will be issued to you.
I have childcare or other caregiving responsibilities on April 16th and wonder if it would be possible for me to bring my child or someone else along for all or part of the meeting so I can meet those obligations and still participate?
Speaking as people who have had no choice but to put many of our own caregiving and other personal responsibilities entirely on hold over the past several weeks in order to respond to the petitioners’ call for a meeting, we understand and are deeply sympathetic to the difficult position many of our colleagues face in this regard. Unfortunately, there is just no way we can ask IU Auditorium staff, who will be monitoring entrances to and exists from the meeting, to adjudicate what constitutes a reasonable request for special accommodation along these lines, as opposed to an unreasonable one, on a case-by-case base basis. We therefore ask that individuals who face these sorts of difficult choices help us by endeavoring to make whatever sorts of alternative caregiving arrangements seem appropriate or possible under these less than ideal circumstances. People who are unable to make such arrangements and are therefore unable to attend the meeting should also recall that they may very well have an opportunity to weigh in on any actions taken in their absence during the “ratification” process which is required by the Constitution if fewer than 800 people are able to attend the April 16 meeting.
Can I send a substitute or vote by proxy?
No. Again, the Section 4.4 of the Constitution is very clear about describing quorum requirements and voting procedures in terms of the number of members of the voting members of the faculty who are “present.” This does not imply any requirement that designated substitutes or proxy voting be accommodated, and it is our determination that attempting to do so would complicate the proceedings considerably and potentially undermine the perceived integrity of any actions that are taken.
I have a written statement, position paper, or other materials I would like to distribute to members of the voting faculty in advance of the meeting, or at it. Can you help me do that?
No. If we agreed to facilitate the distribution of materials submitted by one faculty member, or a group of faculty members, we would be ethically obligated to do so for any member or group of members of the voting faculty. That sort of coordination is simply not feasible given the very limited resources available to us to facilitate this meeting. People wishing to do so are welcome to circulate such materials using their own communication networks, however, and they are also welcome to distribute printed copies of such materials, to anyone wishing to take them, outside the meeting venue. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, those attending the meeting will have the chance to publicly express their thoughts regarding the merits of the any of the motions under consideration during the discussion and debate periods reserved for this purpose.
What will happen at the meeting?
In light of the petition’s substantive demands, members the voting faculty will be asked to consider three separate motions: a motion expressing no confidence in Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty; a motion expressing no confidence in Bloomington Provost Rahul Shrivastav; and a motion expressing no confidence in Indiana University President Pamela Whitten. The motions will be considered in the above order, which reflects the order in which they were presented in the petition. Each motion will be discussed and debated for no more than 45 minutes. Meeting participants who wish to comment on a specific motion will be invited to do so, but we ask that individuals limit their comment to no more than 2 minutes to allow the greatest number of people possible a chance to speak on each motion. People who exceed the 2-minute limit will be asked to stop speaking to allow others the chance to do so and we ask everyone to abide by such requests. At the end of the discussion and debate period for each motion, a vote will be taken on the motion using paper ballots. Pens will not be provided, so we ask that everyone bring their own to mark their ballots. The result of each vote will then be announced. Per section 4. 4 of the Constitution of the Bloomington Faculty, if 800 or more members of the voting faculty are present at the time the vote on a specific motion is conducted, the result of that vote will stand as an expression of the faculty’s will. If fewer than 800 members of the voting faculty are present at the time a vote is conducted, any action taken (i.e., a majority vote of no confidence) will then be referred to full faculty for “ratification” by electronic ballot before it will be considered an official expression of the faculty’s will. In that case, Section 4.4 of the Constitution specifies that a “majority of those voting [by electronic ballot] shall be required for ratification.”
Will I have the option to abstain from voting on specific motions?
Yes. The ballot for each motion will include an option to abstain. Abstentions will not count for or against a motion, but they can be used to establish the existence of a quorum, or to establish the number of faculty casting ballots on a specific motion.
Will additional motions, or motions to amend the initial motions, be entertained?
No. Such procedural affordances pertain to meetings of the Bloomington Faculty Council under the terms of that body’s Bylaws, but this is not a meeting of the Bloomington Faculty Council. It is a special meeting of the full faculty as described in Article IV of the Constitution of the Bloomington Faculty. Article IV does provide limited guidance on certain matters related to how meetings of the full faculty are to be conducted (e.g. identification of presiding officers [Section 4.1], statement of quorum thresholds [Section 4.4], description of how votes are to be conducted and under what circumstances [Section 4.4], recordation requirements [4.5], etc.), but it is otherwise silent on procedural questions. In lieu of such written guidance, appropriate procedures for special meetings of the full faculty are established by the Faculty President, who is explicitly directed in Section 4.1 to preside at such meetings, working in concert with the BFC Parliamentarian and Secretary, who are also identified in that same Constitutional provision as officers of such meetings.
Is the President of the Faculty required to convene this meeting of the full faculty?
No. And yes. Although it is often said and widely believed that Section 4.3 of the Constitution of the Bloomington Faculty requires the President of the Faculty to convene a meeting of the full faculty upon receipt of a petition of at least 50 members of the voting faculty, what the provision actually does is describe which individuals or entities are empowered to make use of university resources to do so, and under what circumstances. Again, Section 4.3 reads “Special meetings of the faculty may be convened by the University President, by the Bloomington Provost, by petition to the Bloomington Faculty President of 50 faculty members, or by majority vote of the Bloomington Faculty Council.” The use of the ‘may’ in the provision clearly indicates that those empowered by the Constitution to convene such meetings are allowed to exercise discretion regarding when to do so. At the same time, and insofar as it uniquely ties the President of the Faculty’s right to convene special meetings of the full faculty to the petition, the language contained in Section 4.3 strongly implies that the President of the Faculty has a special obligation to concern themselves with the will of the faculty as expressed by way of a properly executed petition. The President of the Faculty would almost certainly not be obliged to convene a meeting of the full faculty in response to a petition that offered no particular reason for doing so, or offered obviously frivolous ones, or otherwise seemed to controvert the orderly exercise of the full faculty’s authority.
I talked to someone, who talked to someone else, who said that X, Y, or Z would be the case. But what you are saying sounds different than that. Whom should I believe?
You should believe the information presented here. As President Johnson noted in his initial written communication to the faculty, organizing a meeting of this scale is an enormously complicated task, both logistically and procedurally. We have worked very hard over the past several days to gather all the information we needed to be able to present all members of the voting faculty with the information they will need to be able to participate in the meeting in an orderly, efficient, and equitable way. This FAQ reflects that very deliberate work.
