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ASIAN CULTURE CENTER HOSTS MEHENDI WORKSHOP
IU named in list of ‘woke’ DEI grants from NSF By Deshna Venkatachalam devenkat@iu.edu
In a Feb. 11 press release, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz released a database of over 3,400 National Science Foundation grants awarded toward alleged “questionable” projects that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts or “advanced neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda.” The Trustees of IU were named as one of the many recipients of NSF grants on Cruz’s database, totaling 29 grants worth over $15 million since 2022. Grants to IU trustees support the university’s research and creative projects.
IU did not respond to a request for comment. The NSF is an independent federal agency dedicated to supporting the progress of science and advancing the nation’s health, prosperity and welfare. On its website, the NSF states its investments account for 25% of federal support to American universities for basic research. In October 2024, Cruz released a report alleging over a quarter of NSF spending supports “left-wing ideological crusades masked as ‘academic research.’” According to the press release, the database served as a “backbone” for this report. “The Trump adminis-
tration has been taking a sledgehammer to the radical left’s woke nonsense,” Cruz said in the recent press release. “I am proud to release our investigation’s database, which exposes how the Biden administration weaponized federal agencies.” A week after President Donald Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20, the NSF temporarily froze payments to all existing grants in response to a slew of presidential orders that ban all federal funding for DEI efforts. It announced the restoration of these payments Feb. 2 under the condition it will continue to review funding to comply with agency-wide
and federal standards. Now, Cruz has requested significant examination of these specific awards listed on the database. The grants listed in this database were separated into one or more categories including social justice, race, gender, environmental justice and status. For IU, 27 of 29 grants identified had the “status" tag. According to the report Cruz created in 2024, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Republican staff defined "status" as any grant that describes a person based on their membership in a population considered underrepresented.
Twenty-three of the NSF grants awarded to IU also fell under the social justice tag, claiming they prioritize inclusivity over scientific advancements. Similarly, seven of the grants also were tagged with race, which was attached to programs aimed at addressing racial inequality. Nine of the grants fell under the gender category, which according to the report, presents “far-left ideological theories about men, women and other identities.” Lastly, two of the grants were considered environmental justice projects that “claimed the environmental sciences must be investigat-
ed through the lens of leftwing social activism.” The IU grants targeted by Cruz are set to end within the next few years, except seven grants that ended in 2023 and 2024. Moving forward, Cruz has called upon Congress to end the “politicization” of NSF funding and reinstate the credibility of scientific research. The NSF responded to the possibility of grant termination based on executive orders with an FAQ on its website. “NSF can not take action to delay or stop payment for active awards based solely on actual or potential noncompliance with Executive Orders,” it read.
LOCAL POLITICS
Republican chair wants new energy in the party
Democratic chair hopes to bring community back
By Jack Forrest
By Jack Forrest
Cory Grass has worn a lot of hats. IU and Bloomington police officer. FBI agent. Monroe County Jail transition team director. Currently, he’s a realtor, consulting and training company owner and government affairs director for political lightning rod Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith. But the newest cap he’s donning is red. Monroe County Republican precinct committee representatives elected Grass, who was unopposed, chair of the Monroe County Republican Party during its reorganization March 1. He told the Indiana Daily Student he hopes to inject his party with new energy, with his boss Beckwith serving as a role model. “I use that phrase a lot: I want to be cautiously aggressive,” Grass said Monday. “I don’t think being passive the last — in the recent past — has been helpful to our party at all, so I want to challenge the norm.” Grass takes over for William Ellis, who served as chair from 2015 until he resigned in 2021. Then 18-year-old IU student Taylor Bryant won the vacant position. She resigned last July, and Ellis finished the rest of her term. Grass aims to get the party more involved in Monroe County and Bloomington’s everyday life. His ideas include a fundraiser to support a baby box, cookouts, cornhole and other chances to show Republicans aren’t “crazy, radical people.”
Samuel Ujdak thinks there’s work, home and a “third place.” That can be church. A 24-hour diner. The dive bar. But he said that community space, the third place, has eroded. “We’ve lost the Steak ‘n Shake of high school, right?” Ujdak said March 4. He said without it, people have lost regular face-to-face time with their neighbors. That’s something he wants to change as Monroe County Democratic Party chair. Monroe County Democratic precinct committee representatives chose Ujdak to be the next county party chair Saturday. He was unopposed. Ujdak succeeds David Henry, who was chair for three years after taking over for Jennifer Crossley, who resigned after being picked to fill a vacancy on the Monroe County Council. Both Henry and Crossley now serve on the council. Ujdak is director of grant development at Ivy Tech Bloomington. He was previously director of development and grants manager at Middle Way House and taught “History of the Arab Israeli Conflict” at the University of Michigan. Ujdak said his family’s involvement with Democratic politics goes back generations, including in St. Joseph County, where he’s from. His involvement locally started after the 2016 election, though, when his friends distraught by the results who recognized him as the “political nerd” asked him what they should do to get involved. He said after getting
jhforres@iu.edu | @byjackforrest
jhforres@iu.edu | @byjackforrest
JACK FORREST | IDS
Monroe County Republican Party Chair Cory Grass poses for a photo outside the IU College Republicans meeting March 3, 2025, in Hodge Hall in Bloomington. Grass was elected chair March 1.
Amid his daily commutes between Indianapolis and his home in Monroe County, he’s also connected with IU College Republicans. Grass met the recently-reformed organization’s leadership team, and on Monday, he attended the club’s meeting: not to speak, but just as a guest as he tries to establish himself as the “face” of a local party he said is aging. Monroe County voted largely blue in the last two general elections. In the presidential race, Kamala Harris received about 63% of the vote. Joe Biden got nearly identical numbers in 2020. The majority of the county-wide, local races in 2024 were not contested by a Republican candidate. The Monroe County rac-
es Republicans did win were in districts that cover outside of Bloomington, which has a blue city council and mayor. It’s likely influenced by IU students, which Grass said is “unfair” since many come from out of state and leave after four years. Though Grass said he hasn’t had a chance to fully evaluate the upcoming local elections, he has spoken to a potential candidate about running for Monroe County Sheriff. He also said he would like to see challengers for county council, county commissioner and Bloomington City Council. The county council has one Republican, and the other two are fully Democrat-controlled. SEE REPUBLICAN, PAGE 4
COURTESY PHOTO
Samuel Ujdak is pictured. Ujdak was elected Monroe County Democratic Party chair March 1.
questions of when he’d run for political office — which he said he doesn’t have a lot of interest in — he decided to see how else he could get involved. That involvement started with knocking on doors, and he eventually became chair of the Monroe County Democratic Party fundraising committee in 2019 and party treasurer from 2021-22. Ujdak also recruited Thomas Horrocks, the Democrats’ candidate for Indiana’s 62nd House District last year. Horrocks lost by a thin margin to incumbent Republican Dave Hall. Ujdak said he and Horrocks particularly agreed Democrats have focused far too much on the Republican policies people should vote against instead of what issues face citizens. One ex-
ample, he said, was income concerns from farmers he heard while knocking on doors this summer. “We weren’t really hearing anybody talking about that,” Ujdak said. He worked with the Horrocks campaign and party during the election as deputy chair for strategy and infrastructure, which was around when he decided to run for chair. Ujdak also thinks the state Democratic party needs to try something new. He said there’s an instinct to “chase the middle,” but the party should recognize the issues specific to where they’re running. “It’s okay to have different messages in different parts of the state,” Ujdak said. SEE DEMOCRAT, PAGE 4
SCOTUS declines IU bias policy challenge All Greek life By Maddie Hensley henslemm@iu.edu
The U.S. Supreme Court declined March 3 to hear a conservative group’s appeal to block IU’s bias-motivated incident reporting policy. The Washington-based group Speech First claimed the policy was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendments. Indiana University defines a bias-motivated incident as “any conduct, speech, or expression, motivated in whole or in part by bias or prejudice meant to intimidate, demean, mock, degrade, marginalize, or threaten individuals or groups based on that individual or group's actual or perceived identities.” Speech First filed the suit against IU in May 2024 on the basis that “students shouldn’t face disciplinary sanctions for simply expressing their views, asking ques-
tions or challenging their peers’ assumptions,” Speech First Executive Director Cherise Trump said on the organization’s website. The original complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, called for IU’s policy to be declared unconstitutional and prohibited. IU President Pamela Whitten is included as a defendant, who requested for the case to be dismissed. After the initial district court ruling in August 2024, which concluded Speech First was not the primary party of interest and therefore did not have a case, the group appealed to a higher court. According to the IU bias incident reporting website, IU does not take disciplinary action or conduct formal investigations of bias incidents. Instead, the bias reporting team invites reported students to “voluntary discussions.” Conservative justices
events suspended
By Natalia Nelson nelsonnb@iu.edu
TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
The U.S. Supreme Court Building is pictured June 14, 2024, in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court declined Speech First's appeal to block IU’s bias-motivated incident reporting policy March 3.
Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the court’s decision to not hear the appeal. In his written dissent, Thomas expressed concern that since hundreds of schools have bias response teams, the court will eventually need to resolve the rift. Last year, the Supreme Court declined to review a similar dispute where Speech First challenged Virginia Tech University’s policy for monitoring and reporting bias incidents. The school disbanded the pro-
gram by the time it reached the high court. The debate over free speech has become a point of tension at universities across the country, especially following widespread protests concerning the IsraelHamas war in 2023 and 2024. Last summer, IU approved the expressive activity policy which set guidelines for speeches and protests on IU campuses, sparking further concerns in the IU community about free speech.
IU’s Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association have temporarily paused all social events until March 24. In an email to the Indiana Daily Student, the IFC said the pause was intended to address community health and safety concerns. “This move reflects our community’s willingness to take accountability,” the email read. “The safety of our members and guests is our utmost concern, and we will be taking appropriate action to ensure chapter compliance with updated risk management policies from both councils, as well as a detailed action plan going forward.” The IFC represents 27
of IU’s fraternities, while the PHA is home to 22 of its sororities. The councils are led by Andrew Golde and Abigail Worrel respectively. Beta Sigma Psi was placed on cease and desist Feb. 28 for alcohol and endangering others. The IU Police Department crime log reported three cases of aggravated battery and illegal consumption or possession of alcohol by a minor the same day at the Beta Sigma Psi house. The fraternity was previously placed on elevated disciplinary probation from Aug. 23, 2024, to Dec. 31, 2025, for alcohol, controlled substances, endangering others, hazing, sexual harassment and lewd and indecent conduct. SEE GREEK LIFE, PAGE 4