BLOOMINGTON, IN — An Indiana University lecturer says she was punished after she gave a lecture that featured a graphic detailing forms of white supremacy that included the phrase “Make America Great Again”.
At a small faculty-led rally in front of IU’s administration building, Jessica Adams announced that she was found to have violated a recently enacted, contentious Indiana law. Under Senate Enrolled Act 202, professors are required to embrace free expression and intellectual diversity and may not lecture about political views unrelated to their field.
Adams is the second professor known to be sanctioned under the state’s intellectual diversity law, both of whom teach on the IU Bloomington campus.
“They did find me to be in violation of SEA 202 despite the fact that I was teaching material well within the scope of my practice and discipline,” she said at a Dec. 5 rally. “The profession of social work has a particular mission, vision, goals, values, ethics that we are trying to accomplish, and eliminating racism and white supremacy is one of them.”
Adams returned to teaching the class on Nov. 17 with several university-imposed stipulations, including a person sitting in on all her classes through the rest of the year. She also said she must do 10 hours of professional development and consult with a peer on class materials.
The instructor received a common sanction, which IU policy says does not result in immediate punishment. The written warning was added to Adams’ permanent personnel file, meaning it will be considered in future reviews.
However, it could complicate her future at IU. Adams said she will now also have a mid-year review that will decide whether her contract is renewed.
At the time of publication, Adams did not provide IndyStar with the university letter detailing the outcome of the complaint’s investigation and notifying her of the sanction.
IU spokesperson Teresa Mackin said in an email that the university does not comment on personnel matters.
“Indiana University is committed to academic freedom, following policies that uphold due process for faculty and provide a framework to best serve our students,” the statement reads.
About the complaint against Jessica Adams
University administrators began investigating Adams in October and removed her from teaching for six weeks after a student complained to U.S. Sen. Jim Banks’ office about her lecture’s content.
While teaching a social work class on diversity and social justice, Adams said, she spent about five minutes explaining the pyramid of white supremacy and hearing from students. She said she’s been accused of not spending enough time explaining or discussing the graphic in class.
President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan appears just below the line separating overt and covert white supremacy. Adams said her lecture was focused on the phrase, not the movement.
“During class, the instructor spoke on White Supremacy and showed a graphic that listed Make America Great Again (MAGA) as worse than police killing people of color and stated that MAGA is socially unacceptable white supremacy,” the complaint reads. “Also lists Columbus Day and ‘colorblindness’ as White Supremacy.”
Adams said she plans to appeal her sanction. She maintains that the graphic was misinterpreted and that the complaint should have been found to be without merit since she was teaching within her discipline and the scope of the course.
Impact of SEA 202, Indiana’s intellectual diversity law
Since the intellectual diversity bill was passed in 2024, faculty across the state have rebuked it as an infringement on academic freedom and warned of a mass chilling effect on free speech and lecturing on divisive topics.
Earlier this semester, IU Germanic studies professor Ben Robinson was punished after a dean found an anonymous complaint had merit — though Robinson claims an investigation never occurred. The complaint drew issue with his comments about the university’s free-speech climate, the times he’s been arrested while protesting and his views regarding the state of Israel.
Robinson said Friday that his and Adams’ complaints show the law doesn’t work in practice and violates faculty’s First Amendment rights.
“We see that a lot of laws, a lot of policy that happens under the cloak of darkness or under political pressure, actually doesn’t stand up to scrutiny when it comes to the public light,” he said.
During the 2024-25 academic year, IU received nine complaints IU deemed credible about eight different classroom content issues, according to state filings. All other public universities, together, had five complaints.
The school hasn’t said how many of those investigations resulted in faculty punishment or the number of complaints so far this semester.
The USA TODAY Network – Indiana’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU sanctions lecturer over white supremacy graphic that included MAGA
Reporting by Cate Charron, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
