IDS Thursday, September 4, 2025
Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
INSIDE
2025 BIG TEN GUIDE
IU defeats Old Dominion By Dalton James
jamesdm@iu.edu | @DaltonMJames
No. 20 Indiana football kicked off its 2025 season Saturday against Old Dominion University inside Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. The Hoosiers notched a 27-14 victory, despite allowing Monarchs redshirt sophomore quarterback Colton Joseph to rush for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the contest and a 78-yard score later in the game. Indiana’s offense got off to a quick start, notching 7.5 yards per play in the opening quarter. However, the Hoosiers’ redzone offense squandered its first opportunity of the contest as the Monarchs’ defense held serve at their own 1-yard line on four consecutive plays, forcing a turnover on downs. On the Cream and Crimson’s ensuing drive, redshirt junior running back Lee Beebe Jr. fumbled at Old Dominion’s 20-yard line. It took senior Jonathan Brady’s 91-yard punt return touchdown for Indiana to score its first points of the season with just nine seconds left in the first quarter. The Hoosiers then notched a field goal as they struggled to find the endzone after three snaps inside the Old Dominion 10yard line. While Indiana’s offense struggled, junior defensive back Amare Ferrell and sixthyear senior Louis Moore each intercepted Joseph in the second quarter. Moore’s interception gave the Hoosiers the ball at the Old Dominion 5-yard line, paving the way for redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza to score his first touchdown in an Indiana uniform. The Miami native scrambled into the endzone for a five-yard rushing touchdown, giving the Cream and Crimson a 17-7 advantage at halftime. Coming out of the break, the Hoosiers received the ball to begin the second half. Indiana’s offense strung together an eight-play, 75-yard drive — capped off by sixthyear senior running back Kaelon Black’s two-yard rushing touchdown — to take a 17-point lead. Redshirt sophomore kicker Nicolas Radicic added a 25-yard field goal with just over three minutes left in the third quarter to give Indiana a 20-point lead. Junior defensive back D’Angelo Ponds’ interception with just over 10 and a half minutes left in the game gave Indiana its third takeaway. While Joseph notched a 78yard rushing touchdown on the ensuing drive, the Monarchs still fell by 13. The Hoosiers finished with 502 yards, gaining 5.6 yards per play. Their defense, with the exception of Joseph’s two lengthy touchdowns, allowed just 161 yards throughout the rest of the contest and prevented the Monarchs from reaching the red zone. Mendoza finished 18 for 31 for 193 yards passing. He ran the ball six times for 34 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt senior Roman Hemby led the Hoosiers’ running back trio with 110 yards on 23 carries. Excluding its final drive of the contest, Indiana’s offense made six trips to the red zone. Unlike last season, when Indiana finished second in the nation in touchdown percentage in the redzone, the Hoosiers finished their trips to the redzone Saturday with two touchdowns, two field goals and two turnovers on downs. The Hoosiers now sit at 1-0 and will return to action against Kennesaw State University at noon Sept. 6 inside Memorial Stadium.
BENJAMIN LEGRAND | IDS
Signs reading “Trump is a traitor” and “Grab him by the Epstein files” adorn the Monroe County Courthouse steps Sept. 1, 2025, in Bloomington. Protesters carried signs with similar messages throughout the protest.
Communities protest Trump and IU By Benjamin LeGrand benlegra@iu.edu
Over 100 demonstrators from two separate but simultaneous Labor Day rallies chanted and called just blocks from each other in downtown Bloomington on Sept. 1. The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition held a union card signing event at Sample Gates, while 50501 Indiana hosted a protest at the Monroe County Courthouse. The latter protest also included a diaper and formula drive, postcard writing and other booths. Around 70 people gathered at Sample Gates to sign or renew their union cards, lay out plans for the year and push for the IGWC’s sixdemand campaign, which includes calls for expanded health benefits and a pay raise to meet Monroe County’s livable wage of $43,605, according to MIT’s livable wage calculator. Graduate workers currently make $24,000, according to the IGWC website. Graduate workers received a $1,000
raise in January. The IGWC also continues to fight for official union recognition from the administration, as it has since its inception in 2019. “IU should be the product of the students, faculty, staff who are learning, teaching and researching here,” Ann Campbell, co-chair of the IGWC Coordinating Committee, said. “Under the pillar of our university, we are demanding the protection of our degrees.” Campbell referenced Indiana’s House Enrolled Act 1001, which went into effect July 1 and requires programs to meet a quota of graduates to remain active. Bachelor’s degree programs needed 15 graduates and associate’s degrees needed 10 to meet the bill’s requirements. Across the IU system, 249 programs were affected by the law, with 116 of those at IU Bloomington. Twentytwo degrees were eliminated, and 31 will be eliminated after currently enrolled students graduate. Additionally, 63 were suspended with plans to merge or consoli-
date programs. Speakers throughout the IGWC event also expressed grievances with a bureaucratic glitch in August, first reported by The Herald Times, that left an unknown number of graduate workers with lapses in their healthcare coverage. In emails acquired by the Herald Times, IU Associate Dean for Graduate Education Elizabeth Dunn said that the university would cover the inactive period once policies were reactivated. IU American Studies graduate student Sasha Weiss has a mutation in his tumor suppressant genes. It increases his risk of developing multiple types of cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute, and requires him to visit an oncologist every six months. He shared his problems with the administration’s insurance system with the crowd Sept. 1. “It didn’t affect Pam Whitten; it didn’t affect Shrivastav,” Weiss said. “It didn’t affect any of the admin. Imagine what it would
look like, what IU’s response would be if admin’s benefits were the ones who got cut because of a bureaucratic oversight.” Around 1:30 p.m., over 100 demonstrators from the 50501 protest against President Donald Trump marched down Kirkwood Avenue, past the IGWC protest at Sample Gates, and back down to the courthouse square. The precession stretched from Fat Dan’s Deli to Nick’s English Hut on Kirkwood, gathering a mix of supportive cheers and a handful of jeering from passerby wearing American flags. 50501 is a nonprofit group that has organized multiple nationwide protests against the Trump administration since the group’s creation in January 2025. The demonstrators chanted “No justice, no peace, fuck the police,” and “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” as they crossed and eventually stopped traffic on South Walnut Street for over five minutes,
through multiple traffic light cycles as multiple cars honked. One 50501 protester stood with his bike in front of a vocally displeased driver while stopping traffic. Their conversation continued to escalate as other cars stopped on the street joined in on the honking, and drivers yelled from their respective vehicles. As the biker continued to yell with the driver, four 50501 protesters spread across the road, aiding the stoppage before eventually retreating to the courthouse lawn. “They’re in Trump’s hip pocket,” one protester, Lori Stumpner, said. Stumpner and fellow Bloomington resident Jamie Broker helped organize the protest, with Broker leading the march through town. She carried an upsidedown American flag and was one of the protesters who blocked South Walnut Street. “I hope they see that we’re fed up, that we’re done with this,” Broker said. “We’re over it, we want our democracy.”
State law requires IU faculty to post syllabi online By Madelyn Hanes mrhanes@iu.edu
Syllabi now have a bigger audience than just students. Because of a new state law, Indiana University faculty must publish their course syllabi online. During the final hours of this year’s legislative session, Indiana lawmakers added the requirement as part of the state’s two-year budget bill without debate. During session, lawmakers also made major changes to higher education governance, including giving Gov. Mike Braun sole authority over IU’s Board of Trustees and requiring post-tenure reviews. The new law took effect July 1. IU followed up with its own policy July 26, requiring faculty to publish syllabi at least seven days before the start of classes. According to a fall “Start of the Semester Guide,” IU adopted CourseLeaf, a curriculum and course management platform. The platform will automatically transfer course materials uploaded to the syllabus page on Canvas, a learning management system used by IU, to the public site. Instructors who want to limit certain details to enrolled students must move them to other tabs on the course page, according to an IU blog post. IU advised faculty to avoid posting personal contact information, virtual meeting links or detailed assignment information. “Indiana University works with its campuses across the state to ensure compliance with all state and federal laws,” an IU spokesperson said. Faculty say the rollout
NATALIA NELSON | IDS
An empty classroom is pictured Sept. 1, 2025, in Franklin Hall in Bloomington. IU faculty are required by state law to publish their syllabi online.
has provided little clarity. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental professor and founding director of the Civic Leaders Center Paul Helmke said the policy’s origins make it difficult to interpret. “It came out of nowhere, along with getting rid of the alumni trustees, and it makes it hard to interpret,” he said. “There is no legislative history to interpret, so we have to guess what it is all about.” Helmke said debating what belongs in a syllabus has always been complicated. The only explicit university guidance so far requires faculty to include AI policies and exclude personal contact information, he said. According to the guide, faculty are advised to include physical and mental
health resources, technology-related resources, religious observances, bias incident reporting and sexual misconduct and Title IX resources. “I have no problem with being transparent, no problem with what I cover in class, but if this is going to be used for people to micromanage what we teach in class, faculty are going to be concerned,” he said. The Indiana Daily Student contacted the Indiana House of Representatives Republican Caucus to request interviews but did not hear back by time of publication. IU Media School professor Gerry Lanosga said he supports transparency but questions lawmakers’ intent. “It isn't inherently bad — faculty don’t have any-
thing to hide in their syllabi and people will comply with the law,” Lanosga said. “But what is the rationale? What are the motives? It hasn’t been made clear.” He said he sees the syllabus requirement as an aspect of education being under attack in the U.S. “It’s a means of surveillance over our classrooms that threatens academic freedom and almost certainly will have a chilling effect on professors, particularly if they teach subjects that are viewed as controversial,” Lanosga said. He also raised concerns about competition between other universities with syllabi being posted publicly, noting that although education is open, faculty invest years of work into designing their courses.
“This is a full-time job for faculty to teach and research,” he said. “People put a lot of time and effort into developing courses and that is something people want to protect. But having posted publicly can open people to that sort of competitive pressure.” Lanosga also compared the new law to Indiana’s open-government laws that have protections for trade secrets, but noted lawmakers did not consider that aspect for universities. At the same time, he said the impact may be smaller than some fear — possibly even positive, pointing to what he called a long-running joke among professors. “Maybe the impact on posting them to the public is that students may read it more,” Lanosga said.