The CEO of the Ports of Indiana says the recently launched Indiana Container Initiative aims to fill what he calls a critical gap in the state’s logistics sector.

The initiative seeks to explore the development of multiple international container terminals throughout the state, including at Indiana’s three ports and at various inland locations.

The Ports of Indiana, along with the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, hosted the inaugural Indiana Container Shipping Conference this week, which was attended by Gov. Eric Holcomb and leaders from Indiana’s business, agriculture and transportation sectors.

Jody Peacock told Inside INdiana Business that when it comes to containers, Indiana has missed the boat both literally and figuratively.

“We have a great [container] hub in downtown Indianapolis with the Indiana Rail Road,” Peacock said. “But for the most part, the larger container hubs in the Midwest require Indiana businesses to go out of state; so they have to drive to Chicago or Columbus or other points in the Midwest. That adds shipping costs to anybody who’s shipping and receiving goods via containers.”

Peacock said from a port perspective, containers mean growth. The state’s ports at Burns Harbor along Lake Michigan and at Mount Vernon and Jeffersonville along the Ohio River are not handling containers, which he called “a shame.”

Establishing international container terminals is not an easy task, he said. It requires significant investment and regulatory approvals to make it happen.

“That’s part of why we’re launching the Indiana Container Initiative is that we really have to have our ducks in a row,” he said. “To be able to do this, we need everybody on the same page. We need to understand the market challenges, the investment requirements that are going into this, the federal regulations that are going to be involved for us to get approval to move forward.”

Those efforts were also the catalyst for the Indiana Container Shipping Conference. Officials wanted to gather leaders together to discuss ways to develop new container ports, which could help grow agriculture exports and expand global trade.

Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Corn Growers Association, told IIB that having container infrastructure in place would bring big benefits to Indiana’s agriculture sector.

“The value of corn and soybean exports out of Indiana is about $4 billion, but shipping containerized exports out of Indiana is really just in its infancy,” Kingery said, noting that there are currently only about 7,000 containers going out of the state with agricultural products.

“What we’ve seen is that it could grow to closer to 20,000 containers going out of the state in addition to what we already have. So there’s a tremendous opportunity for growth of those containers shipments of agricultural products out of the state.”

Kingery said adding container infrastructure could bring additional opportunities for farmers to bring in more revenue for their products. Peacock said farmers would also have the chance to reach customers in countries that they previously couldn’t reach.

“If they can have access to a container facility close to the farm, they can fill a container with Indiana soybeans that have premium properties that are attractive to world markets,” he said. “And they can sell that container of soybeans to a country that just can’t take a full ship load, but they can take 20 containers or 50 containers. And that can be a big deal for for an Indiana farm community.”

Peacock said it also means the state’s global trade efforts can grow, supply chain costs can be reduced, and more businesses could possibly locate in Indiana.

Kingery said for the effort to be successful, it will require massive collaboration across the entire supply chain in Indiana.

“The railroads, the loaders, the farmers, the freight forwarders, everyone across that supply chain to get the agricultural products from the field, onto a container, onto some sort of transportation…all of those pieces have to come together,” she said.

The potential investment in container terminals would depend on the size that is needed at each location, Peacock said, noting that an estimate is not yet known. He said developing the sites would be a long process.

“What we’re seeing now is the idea that we’re prepared and we’re committed to do this,” he said. “If we’re trying to spell out what are the next steps right away, it starts with regulatory approval. So we need to really commit to getting regulatory approval to do this if we’re going to do an international container terminal.”

He said officials also need to start identifying potential customers and partners to make the effort happen, which started with the conference. Additionally, they need to develop a funding strategy.

“The nice thing about our ports is the infrastructure is in place. We have the rail connections. We have the waterway connections, but we’re going to need to build out the equipment, the operators, the individual container facilities that are needed to handle the boxes as they move through our facilities.”

Peacock noted that the big thing he observed at the conference was the support that exists across industry sectors and the government for the effort to bring container terminals to Indiana.

“I commend Indiana’s statewide agricultural sector and port leaders for convening this important discussion about growing Indiana’s global trade by expanding our international container shipping opportunities,” Gov. Holcomb said in written remarks. “Leveraging all our port, rail and transportation resources to expand our container shipping connections will strengthen our economy and create even more opportunities for Hoosier farmers, businesses and families.” 

Story Continues Below

LAWRENCE, Ind. (WXIN) — Two parents are accused of leaving their kids in a hot car, that police believe reached 125 degrees inside, while they shopped at an Indianapolis Walmart.

The couple walked into the store Monday night and left their young children in an SUV for 40 minutes, according to the Lawrence Police Department, whose officers responded to the scene.

Police said a passerby noticed the kids inside the locked vehicle, which wasn’t running, and called 911. Officers found one of the children sweating profusely while the other appeared dazed. It’s unclear how old they are.

The parents, identified as Mirianne Pierre and Watson Joseph, were arrested and booked into the Marion County jail on two counts of neglect of a dependent.

Both kids were placed into the custody of the Department of Child Services.

“We never want to leave our kids unattended, much less when it’s hot outside. The moment we shut that engine off, the temperatures rise really rapidly,” said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Sgt. Anthony Patterson.

While Indianapolis police aren’t investigating the case, they reminded parents to never leave their children or pets in an unattended car when its hot outside.

“Once those doors are shut, the temperatures rise really quickly,” said Paterson. “You may feel like it’s only a couple minutes, but to the person or child inside the car, that’s an eternity. It gets really hot really fast.”

On Tuesday, Indiana State Police in Bloomington posted a similar warning on their Facebook page, saying: “The Indiana State Police Bloomington District wants to remind Hoosier parents and pet owners of the extreme dangers of high temperatures and leaving an unattended child and/or pet in a hot vehicle. Never leave an unattended child or pet in a vehicle even with the windows cracked and make it a habit to check the entire vehicle before walking away.”

A new state law aimed at countering state college environments that could be viewed as unfriendly or hostile to conservatives is raising concerns among some faculty as colleges work to figure out what compliance looks like.

Senate Enrolled Act 202 was signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb in March and calls for the implementation of “intellectual diversity” programming at state-funded universities in Indiana.

Under the new law, faculty members at public universities will be required to teach scholarly works “from a variety of political or ideological frameworks” within the faculty member’s purview of instruction. Those found in violation could face disciplinary action or lose tenure protections, depending on how schools implement the law.

Two professors at Purdue University Fort Wayne are suing the school to prevent it from being implemented, claiming the law isn’t clear on what material faculty will be required to teach.

The legislation was authored by Republican state senators Spencer Deery of West Lafayette, Jeff Raatz of Richmond and Tyler Johnson of Leo.

Deery has said the new law is necessary to provide a more robust definition of diversity and belonging on college campuses.

Others see the law as part of a trend among Republican-led states that have moved to limit tenure and target diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Schools subject to the new requirements are Ball State University, Indiana State University, Indiana University, Ivy Tech Community College, Purdue University, the University of Southern Indiana and Vincennes University.

Concerns among faculty

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit on May 7 against the trustees of Purdue University on behalf of faculty members at the university’s Fort Wayne campus.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Steven Carr and David Schuster, who are both tenured faculty at the school.

Carr, a communications professor, is also the director of the Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Fort Wayne campus.

Schuster is an associate professor in the university’s history department.

The lawsuit says the professors’ biggest issue lies in the language of the bill, which states faculty members must “foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression and intellectual diversity within the institution.”

The professors say they are unsure what that phrase means, arguing the unclear language could open the coursework requirements to include potentially dangerous viewpoints, according to court documents.

“Just to take Professor Carr’s example, he teaches about the Holocaust,” said Stevie Pactor, a staff attorney with ACLU of Indiana representing the plaintiffs in the case. “It’s a real concern for him, ‘Do I have to teach you the perspective of Holocaust denial or Holocaust revisionism?’ Because if the criteria you’re supposed to use is stuff that exists in the body of scholarly works, well, that’s there.”

In an op-ed for Based in Lafayette, an independent news site, Deery argues faculty are already required to foster intellectual diversity and this law exists to make it more formal.

Further, he disagrees with the assumption that the law pushes for the teaching of offensive material.

“It’s ludicrous to claim that valuing intellectual diversity is a mandate to teach something offensive or non-scholarly, such as the ‘other side’ of genocide,” he said in an email to Indiana Lawyer.

Deery dismissed the ACLU’s claims and said the language of the law is designed to let individual universities decide what works for them.

“It’s the ACLU. It’s what they do whether there is anything there or not,” Deery said in a written statement. “Senate Enrolled Act 202 was carefully crafted to protect academic freedom, promote free speech and strengthen the quality of education Hoosiers receive. It was designed to withstand desperate measures from those who do not want to see changes in the culture and practices of higher education or who insist their narrow worldview is the only one that counts.”

But Purdue professors are not the only ones concerned about what the new changes could mean for keeping faculty at the schools.

Moira Marsh, a librarian for anthropology, folklore and sociology at Indiana University Bloomington believes the law is government overreach, fearing the state government regulation of tenure could mean that the rules for faculty could change with each legislative session.

Marsh, who’s also president of the Indiana Conference of the American Association of University Professors, believes fellow faculty members maintain the best judgment when it comes to approving faculty work, tenure and more.

“We police each other,” she said.

Implementing the law

Public universities across the state are now working to adhere to the new law, which goes into effect on July 1.

Back in March, Indiana University President Pamela Whitten said the university is working on how to approach the law in a way that includes faculty input.

“Any steps required for legal compliance will include and affirm our values of intellectual rigor and academic freedom,” Whitten said. “Our academic processes of review for hiring, renewal, tenure and promotion will continue to be applied.”

Purdue’s Board of Trustees has vocalized its dedication to following the expectations of the new law, releasing a statement on June 7 to reaffirm their “commitment to institutional neutrality and delegated additional authority and responsibilities.”

“…the Statement of Policy on Institutional Neutrality was approved and adopted as the official Purdue policy, reflecting the university’s existing and long-standing practice,” said Steve Schultz, senior vice president and general counsel. “As required by SEA 202, this policy provides that the university will refrain from taking an official institutional position on a government proposal or policy debate that touches on a social or political issue being contested in the public arena unless that proposal or policy has a direct bearing on the university’s fiscal affairs or on the tools afforded to it to advance its land-grant mission.”

Indiana Lawyer reached out to leaders at the other schools impacted by the law.

The University of Southern Indiana said it is working to comply with the law but offered no further comment.

Ball State declined to comment. Indiana State, Ivy Tech and Vincennes did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Legislation across the country

Since it was introduced, critics have grouped Senate Bill 202 with “anti-diversity, equity and inclusion” laws impacting higher education across the country, including in Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Utah.

According to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education, since 2023, 14 anti-DEI bills across 12 states have been passed in the U.S.

Last June, the governor of Texas passed a law banning college diversity, equity and inclusion programming that doesn’t comply with sections of the state constitution.

The University of Texas cut 311 full- and part-time positions across its nine academic and five health campuses as a result, according to a report from NBC News.

And in Tennessee, the governor signed a bill that ends mandatory implicit-bias training.

Despite the critics, Deery doesn’t believe the law is anti-DEI.

“I believe schools should help students of all backgrounds enroll and succeed,” he said. “The law doesn’t interfere with that, but it does ask colleges to also promote a more robust definition of diversity and belonging than the narrow and superficial definition that often drives the conversation.”

Story Continues Below