Lawmakers link modest university funding bumps to specific programs

DES MOINES — The education appropriations bill the full Iowa House and Senate passed Wednesday includes a combined $7.1 million more for specific programs across Iowa’s three public universities — a fraction of the $32 million increase in general fund dollars the Board of Regents sought for the upcoming budget year.

The proposal also includes a diversity, equity, and inclusion clause — echoing a bill proposed earlier in the session — barring the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa from spending more on DEI-related hires, programming or training.

That section of the funding bill also would require regents to conduct a comprehensive study and review of its campuses’ current DEI programming — something Board of Regents President Mike Richards earlier this year announced it would do.

“The Board of Regents a month ago, I believe, said that they were going to conduct a study,” Rep. Carter Nordman, R-Panora, said Wednesday while presenting on the funding proposal as chair of the House Education Appropriations subcommittee.

“Although that was great, we wanted to make sure that there was an emphasis on that study, and that is why it is in this bill today — making sure that they are looking at everything that we would like them to look at,” he said. “We want to get to the bottom of where these resources are being spent — good, bad or indifferent.”

Regent lobbyists earlier in the session came out against the separate bill blocking spending on DEI-related training and programming across the public universities, arguing diversity is broader than race and ethnicity; that a welcoming campus for students and employees is imperative in recruitment; and many grants and other federal contracts and programs require diversity-related resources.

Funding needs

In making its appropriations request for the 2024 budget year — scheduled to start July 1 — regents in September requested an increase of $32 million in general education funding, with $12 million each going to UI and ISU, and $8 million to UNI.

“There is great concern about employee costs in a market heavily influenced by inflation, competition for quality talent, and labor shortages,” according to the board request.

Instead of upping state funding for the campuses’ general education budgets — like the regents had wanted — lawmakers in their appropriations proposal tied the more modest funding increases to three of the reasons the university presidents cited for needing more money.

Under the bill:

“The regents we're doing a little differently this year, where each of the appropriations are tied to an ask that they came with this year,” Nordman said.

“We appreciate the appropriations we continue to receive from the state for Iowa’s public universities,” President Richards said in a statement Wednesday. “Iowa’s regent universities are engines that help drive the state’s economy, and they need appropriate resources to continue providing outstanding education.”

With the legislative increases and an earlier decision to move the state’s special schools for blind and deaf learners from under the purview of the Board of Regents to the Department of Education, the bill would appropriate a total of $560.7 million to the board, a net decrease of $15.2 million.

“Our universities are strong, and we have maintained a positive partnership with the state for more than 100 years,” Richards said. “We will continue to work with the legislature and governor in future years. The funding we receive from the state is critical to providing affordable and top-level education to our students.”

‘Good, bad, or indifferent’

Regarding the bill’s diversity provisions, Richards didn’t comment Wednesday, but last month shared steps his board has taken to study DEI efforts across the campuses — appointing three regents to a working group, which has been developing a structure and process for how the review will proceed.

The review hasn’t yet started, Richards said, but he expects it will take months; involve faculty, staff, and students; invite public feedback; and result in a report that will go before the full board — likely in November.

Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, on Wednesday pressed Nordman about the need for the bill’s diversity provisions.

“You qualify it with good, bad or indifferent and something to get to the bottom of, and my question is the intent?” Wilburn said.

“I'm sure there's going to be some good, there's going to be some bad,” Nordman said of the board’s DEI review. “That's going to be up for this body, once we receive the report in December, to decipher and consider if changes are needed.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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