Academic Freedom and Tenure: Indiana University Northwest

This report addresses the actions taken in September 2021 by the administration of Indiana University Northwest that led to the dismissal and revocation of tenure of Dr. Mark McPhail. The investigating committee found that IUN violated several AAUP-recommended standards of academic due process and the protection of intramural speech in the dismissal of Dr. McPhail, without any appropriate proceeding or disciplinary process. Furthermore, the report concludes that the behavioral complaints brought against Dr. McPhail that resulted in his termination relied on "racist tropes of incompetent, angry, and physically violent Black men" without any credible basis in truth, and that the general "conditions for academic governance at Indiana University Northwest can therefore only be described as unsound." [The text of this report was written in the first instance by the investigating committee.]