By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
May 16, 2025
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has launched an investigation into the University of Notre Dame and is threatening the school’s nonprofit status, asserting the institution is violating state and federal civil rights laws by promoting “diversity and inclusion” in its admissions and hiring policies and practices.
Rokita announced the investigation on Thursday by releasing to the public a four-page letter he sent to Notre Dame President Rev. Robert Dowd on May 9. In the letter, Rokita wrote that “publicly available materials” suggested the university is employing policies that treat, in particular, students, prospective students and faculty differently based on their race or ethnicity.
Accompanying the release of the letter, Rokita issued a statement that clearly identified his focus is on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“Indiana will not tolerate racial discrimination in education under the guise of DEI,” Rokita said in his statement. “Fairness demands that every individual be judged on their merits, not the color of their skin. Notre Dame’s DEI policies raise troubling questions about whether, in its pursuit of DEI goals, the university may be crossing the clear line that Indiana law draws against racial discrimination.”
The University of Notre Dame denied the allegation it has been discriminating against students and faculty based on their race and ethnic heritage.
“Notre Dame is a premier Catholic research university, and as such, seeks to serve and reflect the broader Catholic Church, which is the world’s most global, multicultural, and multilingual institution. We do not engage in unlawful discrimination in our hiring or admissions processes and look to attract the best and brightest to our campus,” Notre Dame said in a statement.
Rokita has requested the university produce by June 9 a host of documents, communications and drafts. In particular, Notre Dame is to turn over materials regarding policies and guidance on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as well as hiring and admissions decisions.
The attorney general said the materials would assist his office in determining whether “further action is warranted” to ensure the school is following the rules and regulations of its nonprofit status.
“A nonprofit university that engages in racial discrimination is not ‘organized for a public or charitable purpose’ within the meaning of Indiana law and any racial discrimination in which it engages represents an unlawful ‘abuse [of] authority,’” Rokita wrote in his letter, citing to Indiana Codes 23-17-2-23(1) and 23-17-24-1(a), respectively. That statute governs the dissolution of for-profit and nonprofit corporations and gives the attorney general the power to appoint receivers, remove and install trustees, corporate officers or directors, and ask a state court to dissolve the corporation altogether.
The attorney general’s office did not respond to a question from The Indiana Citizen asking whether it had engaged in any discussions with Notre Dame since the letter was sent.
Likewise, Notre Dame did not answer any questions beyond its statement. The South Bend-based university did not say whether it would comply with the attorney general’s request and submit the documents. In addition, the school did not respond as to whether it would be pursuing legal action in court to block the attorney general’s inquiry.
Also, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese did not respond to a request for comment.
In the letter, Rokita cites to the university’s report, “Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework,” which was published in 2023. The document assessed the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and outlined a strategy for becoming “the leading global Catholic research university.” Also, the report noted that the effort to build a more diverse and inclusive community is a “core theme of Catholic social thought” and rooted in the university’s Catholic mission.
However, Rokita claims the publication shows Notre Dame views diversity in racial terms. He points to the report’s call to diversify its faculty and senior staff because minority students could complete their four-year degrees without ever being taught by “someone who looks like them.”
“In Indiana, what someone looks like – and in particular a person’s race or the color of his skin – is not a lawful basis on which to make hiring, promotion, admissions, or other student or employment-related decisions,” Rokita wrote in his letter to the university, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1983 decision in Bob Jones University v. United States. “Actions by a university organized as a nonprofit that appear to contravene such deeply rooted state policy raise a host of questions about whether the university is serving a public or charitable purpose.”
Throughout the letter, Rokita refers to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admission, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which struck down race-based admissions practices in colleges and universities. The state’s top lawyer asserts hiring based on DEI efforts is a form of racial discrimination that was rendered unlawful by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Students for Fair Admissions marked a watershed moment in the advancement of civil rights in this country by making perfectly clear that no form of racial discrimination can be licensed in our higher education system,” Rokita wrote in his letter. “Yet it seems the University of Notre Dame may have met that moment and the Court’s decision with evasion, circumvention, and obstruction, rather than a good faith desire to respect the civil rights of students and faculty.”
Rokita could be the first state attorney general to launch an investigation into a college or university over alleged DEI hiring and admission practices. Other state attorneys general may also be looking into the practices of higher education institutions in their respective states, but, as is common with ongoing investigations, they might not have publicized their actions.
The Indiana attorney general has announced other inquiries his office is conducting. In October 2024, Rokita issued civil investigative demands to South Bend and Seymour law enforcement agencies to review whether the local sheriff and police were cooperating with federal immigration officials. A month later, he sent CID letters to Tyson Foods in Logansport, Berry Global Group Inc. in Evansville, Cass County Health Department and the Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., along with the nonprofits Tent Partnership for Refugees and the God is Good Foundation, seeking information on their roles in allegedly aiding and employing undocumented immigrants.
In each of those cases, the attorney general’s office demanded documents, but has not provided any updates as to the status of the investigations.
Also, Rokita has joined other Republican state attorneys general in pushing back on DEI programs.
In June 2024, Rokita was among the 20 state attorneys general who signed a letter written by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which establishes the accreditation standards for law schools in the United States. The AGs pointed to the Students for Fair Admissions ruling and called upon the ABA to tighten its standards by prohibiting race-based admissions and hiring at law schools.
Last month, Rokita and 11 other state attorneys general signed a letter written by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to several large law firms across the country, although none were located in Indiana. The letter asked the firms to also send to the state AGs the information the federal Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission had requested the firms provide about their diversity, equity and inclusion employment practices.
The law firms were given until April 15 to comply with the request from the state attorneys general.
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
