News Archive

IU McKinney Dean Karen Bravo has been appointed co-chair of a committee tasked with the review of all IU Bloomington buildings and facilities named for a former Indiana University president. The committee is made up of six distinguished faculty members who will evaluate the namings related to David Starr Jordan, who served as the university’s seventh president from 1885 to 1891, and professor of zoology from 1875 to 1885.

Some of Jordan's statements and views have come under particular scrutiny and criticism recently. A number of requests have now been made to remove his name from the building that houses IU Bloomington's Department of Biology and from other locations on the Bloomington campus. The Jordan Committee will conduct its review and submit a report with recommendations for any actions to the president, provost and naming committee by Sept. 1. 

Dean Bravo is the first person of color and the second woman in the school's history to lead the urban-based institution. She is the 13th dean of the law school since its affiliation with IU in 1944. Dean Bravo joined the IU McKinney faculty in 2004 and has served in several leadership roles, both within the law school and on the IUPUI campus. An expert in the study of human trafficking, she is the founder and leader of the Slavery Past, Present and Future project, which organizes an annual interdisciplinary conference for a multidisciplinary exploration of human trafficking and slavery. Her committee co-chair is IU Maurer Dean Austen Parrish.