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Indiana University President Pamela Whitten is getting a raise and a contract extension that will run through 2031.
The IU board of trustees on Thursday voted 8-1 in favor of the $200,000 raise and five-year extension to Whitten’s contract, which was set to expire in the summer of 2026. When the raise goes into effect, Whitten will see her salary jump from $702,000 a year to $900,000 annually.
According to the Chronicle for Higher Education‘s database from the summer of 2024, the raise brings Whitten to the fifth highest-paid university president in the Big Ten.
The vote comes just a week after Indiana University Indianapolis received a Research 1 designation, signaling the Indianapolis campus’ step up into a higher level of research prowess. IU Indy is also setting up IU LAB—a bioscience research accelerator—with a $138 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, the largest-ever research grant in the university’s history.
The board’s vote of confidence in Whitten is not mirrored by faculty throughout the IU system. Whitten drew widespread criticism from students and faculty for her decision to call in Indiana State Police officers to deal with pro-Palestine protests last spring on the IU Bloomington campus.
The university reversed a decades-long policy of allowing protests on Dunn Meadow in the middle of the night, and nearly 60 protesters were arrested in the following days, as images of a police sniper on the roof of the student union drew a national spotlight to the Bloomington campus.
A law firm hired by the university later concluded the overnight decision to outlaw temporary structures on Dunn Meadow was made in “good faith” and attributed much of the issues during the protests to the understaffing of the Indiana University Police Department.
Faculty at Bloomington and other IU campuses have also criticized Whitten for her administration’s perceived stifling of academic freedom and contentions over shared governance.
Trustee Vivian Winston was the lone vote against Whitten’s new contract stipulations, pointing out the widespread criticism from faculty.
Whitten began her tenure as IU’s president in 2021. Thursday’s board of trustees meeting was held in the Madam Walker Legacy Center in Indianapolis.
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Based on Big10 football and basketball coaches salaries, we’re getting a deal for $900K.
A waste