Questions for Provost Srivastav submitted in advance of January 28 BFC Meeting

The Chronicle of Higher Education has reported claims that President Whitten’s PhD dissertation included significant plagiarism. The Chronicle reported that an IU spokesperson has responded, “The document provided by the Chronicle recycles assertions made in August of 2024 that were investigated and found to have no merit by an independent law firm.” Without suggesting any judgment concerning the allegations reported by the Chronicle, the Executive Committee of the IUB-AAUP submits the following questions concerning IU’s reported response:

1. Who received the August 2024 assertions and commissioned a law firm to review them; was the entire Board informed and involved throughout?
   
2. What law firm was chosen and how was the choice of firm determined; specifically, did the President have any role in the selection process or any contact with the law firm or its members apart from providing requested information about her dissertation?
   
3. Who were the investigators assigned by the law firm and what were their qualifications for assessing issues of academic plagiarism?
   
4. Now that the 2024 report has been publicly invoked to clear the President, when will the report itself be made public?

Provost Srivastav's response (BFC meeting, 28 January 2025): "There were a series of questions related, for this meeting, about a recent news story on President Whitten's dissertation. I have no involvement or insight in that and would defer those questions, perhaps, to the Board of Trustees."