Trustees table proposal to separate Kinsey Institute from Indiana University
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana University Board of Trustees decided not to take up on item on its agenda Friday that would have split off the Kinsey Institute, turning it into a nonprofit.
The institute studies human sexuality and contains a collection of erotic art. The proposal would have allowed the collection to stay with IU while spinning off a small portion of the faculty and administration.
In letter sent to Kinsey faculty and staff Friday, Rahul Shrivastav, IU provost and executive vice president, wrote: “The Board’s decision provides us invaluable time to work together, and with experts, fellow faculty and staff, alumni and friends, and other key stakeholders, to consider how best to continue the legacy of the Kinsey Institute while complying with state law. President Whitten and I want to be clear: It has always been our commitment to create a solution that will ensure the Kinsey Institute and its collections remain at Indiana University.”
Earlier this year, the state legislature passed a budget amendment barring the use of state funds to support Kinsey, although a majority of its funding comes through grants and donations.
Critics said the state cut off its funding to because some lawmakers don’t like Kinsey’s mission.
The institute’s website says that Dr. Alfred Charles Kinsey was an American biologist, professor of entomology and zoology, and a sexologist. In 1947, he founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University.