Editor’s note: This story includes decisions made by the University related to Indiana Senate Bill 235. The bill was withdrawn from the Senate Feb. 10. The Ball State Daily News has reached out to co-author Scott Alexander (R), who represents the Muncie community and did not receive comment before the deadline provided.

Amid recent changes to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at Ball State University, students, faculty and community members are voicing frustration and disappointment. Leo Caldwell, an assistant lecturer of media design at Ball State, who once felt supported by the university during his gender transition as a Ball State student, feels differently in light of those changes.

“I never expected, within the first week of the Trump administration, that the place I show up to as a trans educator and a trans student, would suddenly feel unsafe very quickly,” Caldwell said.

The adjustments come in response to Indiana’s proposed Senate Bill (SB) 235, which seeks to limit DEI initiatives at state-funded educational institutions. 

“State funding is important to the success of Ball State. About 40 percent of the university’s operating budget, as well as building restoration costs and capital projects, come from the General Assembly,” said Becca Rice, Ball State’s Vice President for Governmental Relations and Industry Engagement, via email.

SB 235 follows SB 202 from the 2024 session — now Public Law 113 — which passed March 13. SB 202 mandates that diversity offices promote “both cultural and intellectual diversity” and establish procedures for disciplining faculty members who do not meet certain “intellectual diversity” standards. As of Feb. 10, SB 235 was withdrawn from the Indiana State Senate.

RELATED: Students and faculty grow concerned about Senate Bill 202

The Ball State Daily News reached out to the two original authors and two co-authors of SB 235 before its withdrawal on multiple occasions. No response was received from any senator, except for Senator Gary Bryne (R), who provided a statement on Feb. 6 in support of the passage of SB 289 — which is not the same as SB 235, but rather two bills that were combined. 

“SB 235, for the most part, was amended into SB 289 on second reading,” Jacob Stewart said via email Feb. 7. Stewart is the press secretary of Gary Bryne’s, author of SB 235 and SB 289.

SB 289 — which establishes “prohibitions and requirements on state agencies, state educational institutions and health profession licensing boards” regarding DEI — is slated for its first reading at Indiana’s House of Representatives March 3, according to Indiana’s General Assembly website.

Micah Peck, vice president for Ball State’s Feminists for Action, argues that SB 235 and its sister legislation, while not yet passed into law, are already influencing administrative decisions at Ball State. 

“I feel that it's Ball State abusing their power, and it’s their true nature coming out,” she said. “It's anticipatory … They're targeting to protect their own in the end, but it's not actually committing to the students that have paid their tuition and have committed their time on campus.”

LGBTQ+ 101 

For Peck, one crucial instance of this was the cancellation of LGBTQ+ 101, a faculty development session initially scheduled for April 16. An internal email — dated Jan. 28 — from the Office of Inclusive Excellence at Ball State stated: “I am sorry to announce that this course has been canceled at the request of the [Ball State University] administration.”

Greg Fallon, associate vice president of university communications and digital strategy at Ball State, responded to the university’s decision, stating via email that “Ball State offers a variety of learning and development sessions annually to support employee professional growth. Amid bills that have been introduced in Indiana’s current legislative session, [the] leadership of the Office of Inclusive Excellence at Ball State felt it was prudent to pause [LGBTQ+ 101] until there is further clarity.” 

The statements Fallon provided were made before SB 235 was withdrawn. 

Co-president Indigo Koslicki of Ball State’s American Association of University Professors (AAUP) said that based on the language of SB 289, the university could have interpreted the bill to allow for the training to still take place. 

“There are phrases in this bill, SB 289, that say any activity made to help attract or retain students is fine, so long as it’s voluntary, and so our legal team in our university could easily have been like, ‘According to our interpretation of this bill, what we’re doing is fine until we’re told otherwise,’” Koslicki said. 

A Feb. 4 statement from Ball State’s AAUP also notes that the bills introduced during Indiana’s current legislative session “will likely carry an implementation date of July 1, 2025, should they pass.” 

The public relations director for Spectrum, a Ball State organization for LGBTQ+ students and allies, Izzy Thompson said that Ball State’s halt on the session was disappointing and even scary for students. 

“I think doing that scared a lot of their students and made their students feel like Ball State was against them,” Thompson said.

AAUP’s statement also called the university’s actions “anticipatory obedience” — preemptive compliance “bills that are not yet current law.”

“I’m very concerned. I think that it’s a very bad sign to … have compliance with a law that hasn’t even been passed,” Koslicki said. “Bills go through multiple amendments before they’re even passed. We may not know what its actual final state will be when it comes to voting.”

Koslicki warned that the university’s actions send a harmful message to marginalized communities. 

“Historically, attempting to comply with someone who’s already completely anti-justice, anti-DEI, anti-higher [ed]ucation, you’re not going to get on their good sides,” she said. “By doing this, the university is not going to get what it wants, as far as getting on [Indiana Governor Mike] Braun’s good side, because we’re still not going to get much funding allotted to us.”

Koslicki also emphasized how, by over-complying with an unfinalized law, the institution risks alienating LGBTQ+ students and others who might already feel unsafe on campus. 

“Ball State has such a large queer student body, and they get awards for diversity. Then, they do this,” Thompson said. “I just feel like it scares the students and makes them nervous. It makes them feel unsafe.”

At a recent university senate meeting Feb. 20, Koslicki said that in response to SB 289 concerns, Ball State President Geoffrey Mearns acknowledged that people want a public statement, and he appreciates why they want him to do it, but he thinks private advocacy is best.

“I think one of the big things is, we kind of consistently get this message from university leadership, [which] is kind of a patronizing message of like, ‘Oh, I know you guys are worried, but there’s nothing to be concerned about,’” Koslicki said.

Something Koslicki hopes will lead to a “breakthrough” is the fact that students, faculty and staff members have “valid concerns.”

“It’s our faculty, staff and students,” she said. “We are the backbones of the university.” 

Members of Spectrum initially reacted with fear and uncertainty to the staff training cancellation. Thompson said they were worried that Spectrum could be told to cease meetings and events.

“At first, we were really scared. We were all very nervous about it because the hysteria definitely hit us. We were like, ‘Are we gonna get canceled?’” Thompson said.

The administration’s decision to cancel the staff training has also been met with disappointment from former students. Among them was 2023 Ball State graduate Jesse Canchola, who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. 

“It’s so unfortunate and disheartening to see my alma mater turn its back on me, my peers and people in my community,” they said. 

Sherlyn Contreras, another 2023 Ball State graduate, shared similar concerns, emphasizing the challenges they faced from a lack of institutional support as a non-binary person. 

“Not only was I a trans student, which was incredibly isolating at Ball State, but I was also first-generation and Mexican-American,” they said. “There was a moment where [professors] said things that I believe DEI training could have prevented.”

Contreras also pointed out the potential consequences that the absence of DEI initiatives could lead to, such as increased microaggressions and lower retention rates among queer and minority students.

Trans Week of Visibility

Caldwell published a Medium blog post Jan. 26, announcing that Ball State had canceled a week’s worth of planned events for Trans Day of Visibility, which is celebrated annually March 31. 

This decision sparked widespread criticism, particularly because Caldwell, who spearheaded the initiative, said he had spent extensive time coordinating speakers, interactive exhibits and food for the week-long event. 

In his Medium blog post published Feb. 11, Caldwell detailed a timeline of events.

In May 2023, Caldwell said he was awarded a faculty fellowship in the Office of Inclusive Excellence for the 2024-2025 school year after proposing a “transgender-focused project.” According to Caldwell’s post, he wanted to conduct “a census survey of trans students to see where the fellowship could have the biggest impact.”

He also wrote the proposal didn’t need to go through the institutional review board either since it wouldn’t be used for research. 

However, in Sept. 2024, the administration denied his request to conduct the survey. Caldwell expressed his concern, stating in his post that a survey about “Gender & Sexuality” had been sent to “all Ball State students by Christian researchers” the previous year. 

Following the survey’s denial, Caldwell was first encouraged in Oct. 2024 to organize events for Trans Week of Visibility. Although he initially hesitated, stating via his Medium he “always do[es] events and rarely do[es] anything directly impacting trans students' day-to-day existence,” he agreed to move forward. 

Caldwell wrote he was assured there was a substantial budget, specifically for LGBTQ+ events, with an initial allocation of $20,000 and potentially more if needed. The initial events planned included: an interactive empathy exhibit, an outdoor display, a “Trans in the Midwest” panel and a social gathering.

Caldwell had also planned to host Laith Ashley, a model, actor and activist known for his advocacy for transgender rights, as the keynote speaker. However, Caldwell wrote that after Ashley’s contract had been sent to the administration in January, the entire week of events was shut down. 

In an interview with the Ball State Daily News, Caldwell said he received mixed messages from different university representatives. Some told him all events were still canceled, while others insisted only Ashley’s contract had been removed due to “budgetary constraints.”

Caldwell said the reasoning was “strange” because the keynote speaker was “donor-funded.”

When the Ball State Daily News reached out to Fallon to clarify what happened with Ashley’s contract cancellation, he said via email, “It is inaccurate to say the Trans Week keynote speaker was canceled. A contract with the speaker was never finalized.” 

Caldwell said Ashley was willing to negotiate the fee for his part in Trans Week of Visibility, understanding the hardships presently faced by trans youth in small, conservative spaces.

Frustrated by the lack of clear communication, Caldwell said he ultimately decided to move forward with only the interactive exhibit because he “did not feel safe or supported to continue with the other events due to the administration’s inability to confirm agreements in writing.” 

When contacted regarding DEI cancellations on campus, Ball State’s Chief Strategy Officer, Charlene Alexander, said via email, “The only event that was paused is the employee training session, no other events, or activities were canceled.”

In addition to these administrative decisions, the AAUP released an additional statement Feb. 4 that the group received reports from Ball State faculty members of “the destruction, removal, or reversal of all signs and stickers related to LGBTQ+ topics” in the academic buildings on campus.

Ball State’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) Co-chair Ayden Thurnau, a third-year student at the university, said he feels “betrayed” by an institution that’s supposed to advocate for inclusivity, as outlined in Destination 2040: Our Flight Path, the 2019-24 strategic plan for Ball State University. 

“A lot of the student voices I've heard are mainly upset because they have had poor experiences as a member of the LGBTQ+ community on campus,” Thurnau said. “They want a safe space. We need a safe space.”

Ball State’s Feminists for Action (FFA) president and third-year student, Maela Cole, echoed Thurnau’s sentiment.

“As a lesbian [with a] a trans woman girlfriend, I honestly feel the university claims to want to represent queer people, minorities, and they are straying from the role and … everything Beneficence stands for,” Cole said.

How Indiana universities are responding

The decisions of Ball State’s administration have been mirroring similar actions at other Indiana institutions. Rice said this is because “[Ball State] work[s] closely with” the other public and private institutions. 

“Many times, we engage in legislation as a set of institutions,” Rice said.

Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine recently canceled its LGBTQ+ Health Care Conference, which had been previously held for eight straight years. According to its website, the event — set to take place virtually April 23 and 24 — was “designed for healthcare professionals, learners, researchers, patients, community organizations and interested community members” who want to better understand the “unique health considerations and barriers to healthcare in the LGBTQ+ population.”

An update on the conference's website stated, “The IU School of Medicine LGBTQ+ Health Care Conference has been canceled.”

Chris Geidner, publisher and author of the legal information website Law Dork, had been invited Jan. 27 to be a keynote speaker at the conference but was notified just two days later the conference was canceled. 

“The needs of the LGBTQ+ community don’t change because the conference is canceled, and so basically all that happened is that the medical providers across the country who might have attended this conference either need to find somewhere else to get this information or won’t have it,” Geidner said. “That just makes the health outcomes for the people who would have benefited from their providers getting this information worse.” 

At Indiana State University (ISU), LGBTQ+ programming is also facing restrictions. 

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana website, ISU is being sued for blocking the Pride Center of Terre Haute from holding Pride Fest 2025 on campus. The Pride Center, a non-profit organization that hosted Pride Fest at ISU in both 2023 and 2024, was “suddenly denied” permission to hold the event in 2025. 

The ACLU lawsuit details that ISU’s refusal violates the First Amendment. According to the ACLU of Indiana website, rather than allowing Pride Fest to take place on university grounds, ISU reportedly made an agreement with the city of Terre Haute to move the event to a public park. 

Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU of Indiana, said in a statement on the ACLU’s website: “ISU’s failure to provide Pride Fest an on-campus location is directly related to the message of inclusivity, equality and support conveyed by all Pride festivals. It is clear that the university is censoring Pride Fest because of its support of the LGBTQ+ community.”

He added that The Pride Center has a First Amendment right to host the festival in the Indiana State University Quad, “a space explicitly designated as a place for free expression.”

Ivy Tech Community College will also be “closing all diversity, equity and belonging offices across the state” during mid-March of this year in an effort to protect its state and federal funding, according to a Feb. 11 Mirror Indy article.

Looking ahead, Thompson hopes for more transparency and action from Ball State, as well as other Indiana universities. 

“They just need to tell students, ‘This is what we’re going to do to protect you guys and ensure your safety,’” he said. “Right now, Spectrum feels like we’re the only ones. There’s only so much we can do and so much safety we can try to provide.”

Caldwell echoed a similar plea for greater communication from university officials as a faculty member.

“Obviously, we're trying to protect our budgets, right? I get it. I get [Ball State] gets money from the state. I totally understand that, but you can still acknowledge the pain and the hurt of what's happening to many marginalized groups on campus and still comply, still court the legislators. It’s possible to hold space for both. The heartbreaking thing is I have not felt that space being held,” Caldwell said. 

Rice said the reaction to complex legislation from each university is specific to circumstances faced by an individual institution.

“While public statement and/or testimony is one strategy, each university must determine when it is appropriate and effective based on its own unique situation,” she said.

As universities across the state of Indiana face pressure over DEI policies, student, faculty and advocacy groups continue to push for inclusivity and transparency. With SB 289 advancing to the Indiana House of Representatives, the future of DEI programming at Ball State and other institutions currently remains uncertain.

Contact Meghan Braddy via email at meghan.braddy@bsu.edu or on X @meghan_braddy. Contact Katherine Hill via email at katherine.hill@bsu.edu.

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