Iowa universities directed to identify federal contracts with DEI provisions

Amid an onslaught of criticism from lawmakers and proposed legislation to codify their higher education critiques, Iowa’s Board of Regents this week directed its public universities to do “a lot more” to comply with the “spirit of the laws” — including pulling down current or archived webpages with any mention of diversity, equity and inclusion.

“There has been work done on the university webpages, but a simple search shows there is a lot more work to do,” board President Sherry Bates said during a regents meeting Thursday. “For some, it may look like nothing has been changed. This is not the case, but the changes must be made.”

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Bates also charged each campus to identify existing contracts with the federal government that have DEI provisions — along with details on dates of the agreements, parties involved, dollar amounts and estimates of the portion of work yet to be done.

“All of us — regents, university administrators, faculty and staff — must examine what we are doing right now and what we will do going forward to ensure that we are following the spirit of the laws and executive orders, not just the words on the paper,” Bates said.

The sweeping scrub of any mention of work past and present to support the universities’ DEI goals — which, until rewrites approved this week, were spelled out it their strategic plans — comes as an about-face to DEI demands the campuses responded to five years ago in 2020.

“When it comes to social justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments, the trust between students, staff, and faculty and the top administration at the University of Iowa has been decimated,” seven UI diversity councils wrote in an open letter to then-UI President Bruce Harreld in June 2020. “If the university truly seeks the inclusive and just future it claims to champion, our community needs to see personal, genuine commitment, and concrete, sustained action for equity.”

In response to those and similar demands, all three of Iowa’s universities enacted broad DEI programming, staffing, training and services — all of which are being rescinded due to pressure from Republican lawmakers.

UI administrators this month, for example, stripped official recognition of the councils that five years ago made those demands of Harreld. This month, the UI confirmed it’s dropping three living learning communities in its residence halls centered on LGTBQ+, Latinx and Black students.

“After working with the board office for the past several months, the University of Iowa announced that three living learning communities will no longer exist after the end of this spring semester,” Bates said during the meeting this week. “We understand that some are upset, but to comply with recent decisions, this is the path forward.”

‘That is not true’

The Legislature last session passed a measure barring Iowa’s public universities from spending money on DEI offices, staffing, training and programming — while the regents levied similar directives and encouraged the institutions to do more to promote intellectual and ideological diversity.

This session, lawmakers have proposed additional measures aimed at curtailing DEI efforts — with focus on academics, departments and systemic DEI-driven structures. Beyond those concerns, lawmakers critical of the regents and the campuses have proposed bills requiring more transparency, more accountability and more thorough reviews and reports.

“Currently, there are several bills in the Legislature that would direct the board to do a review of our programs and how they fit with high demand jobs and workforce needs,” Bates said. “We do not need to wait for a bill. I am directing the board office, in consultation with the universities, to begin the review now and to have a full and complete report to the board by its November meeting at the latest.”

Acknowledging criticism from lawmakers that the board has not been doing its job, Bates said, “I know that there are some who believe the board and the universities move too slowly in being responsive to concerns that are raised.”

“There are many examples to show that is not true,” she said, pointing to changes the universities made to strip gender questions from admission applications and limit the options of “sex” to only male and female.

“Even before the letter from several members of the Legislature was received, work was already underway to make the changes,” Bates said.

‘Stay ahead of the curve’

Bates’ comments come days after she was called to answer lawmaker questions during a presentation from the university presidents to a legislative appropriations committee.

Accusing the UI of falling short of DEI mandates and executive orders, pointing specifically to the campus’ website, Republican Rep. Brooke Boden of Indianola asked Bates, “Knowing that we have non-compliance … and we're looking at funding the schools, and to me funding comes with following the law, how do we handle these non-compliances?”

“What's going to happen here?” Boden asked. “Because I fully think that we've had plenty of time to pull this stuff off of the internet. I'm looking to you for some answers.”

In fulfilling her promise to impress the urgency of their compliance on the campuses, Bates Thursday told them to pull down any pages they suspect could be in violation.

“Once the pages are down then the universities, in consultation with the board office, can determine what pages need to exist but rewritten,” she said. “We must stay ahead of the curve and not play catch-up.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com