Martin University Alumni request meeting with the Board of Trustees
Standing on a corner along Meridian Street on Jan. 7, members of the Martin University Alumni Association (MUAA) and supporters declared their ongoing commitment to the school. They are seeking ways to keep their beloved institution open for future generations.
“We’re not going to sit back and allow it to be permanently closed. Period,” said MUAA Vice President Denell Howard, who added that the board should stop using phrases such as, “final chapter.”
The MUAA has been in talks with other educational institutions, business leaders and stakeholders to receive counsel on how to move forward. They were told “by (Martin) leadership” that the school is not closing permanently, and they want to have representation at the table to determine what happens next.
“The greatest thing for that trustee board to do is to humble themselves and sit down with the president of the alumni association and let them lend their voice to the pathway forward,” Howard said.
Martin University advocate and local clergyman Clyde Posley aims to honor the legacy of the school’s founder, Father Boniface Hardin, by paying former university employees whose positions were terminated when the board announced the school’s closure.
“We want to pay those staff members,” Posley said. “It is right to pay those employees and not leave them out in the cold.”
The MUAA, independent from the university, launched a campaign to raise $40,000 to pay employees’ unpaid wages.
‘A college of liberation’
There is a moral responsibility, Posley said, to keep the only Predominantly Black University in Indiana available for the community.
“You cannot say you are fighting the ills in urban America and cut off one of its greatest access (points) to education,” Posley said. “You cannot say you are fighting against these things that cause crime within cultures and cut off access to educating individuals about crime. You cannot say that you are pro-urban America and pro-Black and brown and then cut off the university that, per capita, has educated more Black and brown individuals in this city over the last 50 years. Those two things are not true. And so we say today, give us back our university.”
Following the press conference, alumni swapped stories on how they helped establish the school, the classes they taught and the students’ lives who were changed because of their education at Martin.
“It would be a sin to wipe away the struggles, the sacrifices of Father Boniface Hardin and (Sister) Jane Schilling, going door to door to recruit people like me,” said Martin alumnus Clete Ladd.
Ladd lived near 25th Street. He “ran the streets,” but Hardin and Schilling saw his potential for leadership and encouraged him to pursue a degree at Martin. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in urban ministry studies. Ladd later taught Emancipatory Narratives and African and African American Studies at his alma mater.
“Martin University is a college of liberation,” Ladd said. “If we can’t be liberated, then we’re enslaved.”
If the school were to open up for future students, Posley said there would be no need to congregate on street corners, but rather they would meet in classrooms where they could educate youth and students in what they need to know.
“Give us back our university and we will be what Boniface Hardin intended for us to be, a people of each other for each other,” Posley said.
Together, in the tradition of Hardin, Posley led the alumni in proclaiming, “I am you and you are me.”
The Board of Trustees’ response
During a previous press conference held by the MUAA, the association called for the resignation of the board president. In an op-ed published in the Recorder on Dec. 30, 2025, Martin University’s Board of Trustees urged the public not to single out any individual trustee, noting that it was a collective decision to close the school. No further statements have been released by the institution.
The board expressed its appreciation for the various stakeholders who have supported the institution since its inception. Next, according to the op-ed, they plan to sell off assets “in an orderly manner so that creditors and employees are treated fairly.” They strive to uphold the school’s legacy as they move toward closure.
“Let us be clear: nothing would bring the Board greater satisfaction than preserving the founders’ vision and legacy,” per the op-ed.
For more information on the Martin University Alumni Association, contact martin.alumni@gmail.com.
Camike Jones is the Editor-in-Chief of the Indianapolis Recorder. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Jones has a lifelong commitment to advocacy and telling stories that represent the community.
