Waste of the Day: Indiana University’s $3 Million Sex Research Payroll
Topline: Indiana University paid $3.3 million to employees researching “human sexuality” at its controversial Kinsey Institute in 2023, according to payroll records obtained by OpenTheBooks.com.
State lawmakers recently banned the university from spending tax dollars on the Institute’s operational costs, but that won’t entirely stop public money from flowing in. Indiana University voted in March to keep its affiliation with the Kinsey Institute and allow faculty to continue working there on a taxpayer salary “to the full extent allowable by law.”
Key facts: The Kinsey Institute’s mission is to conduct research in “the science of love, sexuality, gender, and sexual health.”
Some conservatives dislike the Institute’s research because they say it contributed to social acceptance of pornography and homosexuality.
One 2019 study from the Institute claimed that pornography could ease symptoms of loneliness and depression. Researchers also created the “Kinsey Scale,” which claims that most people are not entirely heterosexual or homosexual.
Several Institute researchers double as professors in Indiana University’s Gender Studies department, including Executive Director Justin Garcia. He led the payroll with $266,400 in earnings.
Thirteen of the 49 staffers made more than $100,000, though the payroll includes 10 part-time student workers making small stipends.
Ten people work at the Institute’s library — which houses “books and articles related to all facets of sex” as well as 80,000 photographic prints — and earn up to $128,000.
Background: Lawmakers issued the funding ban primarily because of the Kinsey Institute’s alleged history of child sex experiments, but the Associated Press reports that those claims are “unfounded.”
Regardless, taxpayers should not be funding a research center that legislators have deemed to have little public merit.
Indiana University considered turning the Institute into a private nonprofit to comply with the ban. Instead, they’ll consult with lawmakers to fund the Institute using donations and other revenue instead of state appropriations.
That means the new law may be largely symbolic. The Institute won’t technically be using tax dollars, but it will divert private money from the university and force more state funds to be spent on other programs.
OpenTheBooks’ auditors found $1.9 billion in payroll costs from Indiana University last year. There were 716 employees making more than $200,000.
That includes over $12 million paid for a fired football coach’s contract buyout and $853,000 paid to President Pamela Whitten.
Summary: Money is fungible, and even without taxpayer funds directly funding the institute, public money is subsidizing the research.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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