Iowa university websites accumulate dead links as they scrub DEI content

IOWA CITY — Last spring, University of Iowa Director of Equity Tiffini Stevenson Earl received the 2024 David J. Skorton Staff Excellence Award for “her dedication to our university.”

Months earlier, in fall 2023, UI student and diversity ambassador scholarship recipient Josie Mbaye shared a personal essay on how studying abroad helped her appreciate chronic illnesses she suffered for the coping and perseverance skills they instilled.

Years before that, in April 2021, then-UI President Bruce Harreld penned a letter to the university community following the guilty verdict of the Minneapolis officer involved in the George Floyd killing.

“How our community moves forward impacts our ongoing fight against racism and the growth of our campus culture,” according to the message, promising “institutional change will be created through listening, dialogue, and action over time.”

And a month earlier, in March 2021, the university’s then-Trans Inclusivity Coalition wrote an “open letter to transgender students” — distributed by the UI Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

“Here, in this time, we make a pledge,” according to that letter, co-signed by the UI Division of DEI, Division of Student Life and University Counseling Service, among 28 other UI councils, centers and government bodies. “We pledge to speak up and to act up, trading our stability to ensure your safety.”

Those disparate reports now have one thing in common: They have been scrubbed from a UI website reflecting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — like most of 12 pages of articles the renamed and reframed UI Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity maintained in its online archive until a recent Board of Regents directive.

The work of scouring online mentions of campus DEI efforts illustrates how pervasive of a task it is to remove those reports from all of the UI’s webpages. While those items have vanished from the former DEI webpage, some still live on — for now — in postings on other UI webpages for programs and colleges.

“I am directing the institutions to pull down any current or archived webpages regarding diversity, equity, and/or inclusion,” regents President Sherry Bates said in a statement last month following continued criticism from Republican state lawmakers upset with any evidence of DEI work across the public universities.

“Once the pages are down, then the universities — in consultation with the board office — can determine what pages need to exist but be rewritten,” Bates said.

In line with that directive, the UI Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity site now contains just two pages of items deemed in compliance with both regent and legislative mandates. And even a remaining story with the headline “UI makes progress implementing Iowa Board of Regents DEI directives,” connects to a dead link.

The online DEI review applies not just to existing and shuttered departments that once had missions centered on diversity, but to web content managers across the campuses and their different colleges and departments.

On the Iowa State University site, for example, a years-old link to news of a faculty senate DEI committee now leads to an “access denied” screen. Another ISU link to a “faculty award for diversity enhancement” redirects to a more general “honors and awards” page. And a “diversity and inclusion” page specific to the ISU Department of Kinesiology now goes straight to that department’s homepage.

On the UI site, a link to the University Counseling Service’s “trans inclusive care” now leads to a “page not found.” A “name change fund” that once was called the “trans student support fund” now links to a broad “student life emergency fund.” And the UI College of Public Health’s DEI page now “can’t be found.”

‘Delete it’

Still, the work is vast — with many DEI-related reports and plans across the campuses still accessible through various college websites and internet searches.

At the University of Northern Iowa, for example, most dated DEI-related links remained live for now — including news of a “Celebrating Diversity” event in November showcasing “the importance of cultural diversity and global understanding”; a long list of archived stories from its now-defunct Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice; and information on a DEI certificate that UNI students still can earn by studying a range of topics from gender to religion to politics.

Courses that count toward the certificate — which remains available to interested students — include “masculine cultures,” “introduction to LGTBQ studies” and “women’s and gender studies.”

“We had one student enroll in the certificate program in 2023 and four in 2024,” UNI spokesman Pete Moris said.

At the UI, DEI digest reports from years back remain accessible — as do DEI news items across various colleges.

It was the ongoing DEI references across the campus websites, in part, that sparked ire in February from Republican Rep. Brooke Boden of Indianola when Iowa’s public university presidents met with a legislative appropriations committee.

“If interiorly we’re doing the work, it sure doesn’t seem like it on the internet, which is where a lot of people reside,” Boden said, highlighting the Legislature’s role in funding the public campuses. “We're looking at funding the schools and, to me, funding comes with following the law. So when and how do we handle these non-compliances?”

That question compelled regents President Bates to promise impressing on the institutions the need to comb through their websites to remove or rewrite any current or archived pages “regarding DEI.”

“If you know a page should be removed in its entirety, delete it,” the UI Office of Strategic Communication told faculty and staff in guidance that the Board of Regents Office then passed on to both Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa to follow.

‘Erasing history’

The web review, according to that guidance, should cover pages, menu items, Word documents, Excel files and past or archived events, stories, statements and climate surveys — among others.

It doesn’t cover faculty or student research, a faculty member’s curriculum vitae, academic journals, course names and descriptions and library publications.

“If you know a page has problematic content but you can edit it quickly and easily, make the edits and keep it published,” according to the guidance. “If the editing process is going to take time, unpublish the pages until you can bring them into compliance and republish once you’ve finished your edits.”

For pages that web managers are unsure about, UI Strategic Communication advised unpublishing the content before discussing it with a supervisor. The same went for “pages that appear in violation of the directive, but you would like to make the case for why they should remain.”

In a frequently-asked-questions summary about the DEI web review, the UI communications team suggested campus news items about DEI-related research and scholarship should be removed for review. The same goes for student profiles “where the student speaks about DEI on campus in their own words.”

“These are university produced and not considered academic content so should either be edited or removed for review,” according to the FAQ.

To one person’s question asking, “Can we download it and save it offline? It seems like we are erasing history,” UI communications responded, “For now, we are unpublishing content for review.”

And when asked if the web pages are considered public record, the university responded that it is “not legally required to maintain this content online.”

“If we receive a FOIA request, we will follow the public records law.”

Given the lawmaker pressure and regents directives are tied to a law passed last session barring spending and work on diversity, equity and inclusion — defined in sweeping terms as anything promulgating or promoting differential treatment, training, policies or procedures — the UI guidance said legal enforcement beings July 1.

“But we should work diligently to complete our work by May 1.”

The UI guidance referenced a “review committee” for this process, but officials said, “We don’t have any additional information at this time.”

To The Gazette’s questions for ISU and UNI about what processes they’re following in reviewing their webpages and redacting DEI-related information, ISU spokeswoman Angie Hunt said, “Iowa State has updated or removed websites as changes have been made in compliance with DEI directives and laws.

“The university will continue to review and make additional changes to comply with the directive from President Bates.”

Moris, the UNI spokesman, on Friday told The Gazette, “We are still evaluating the specifics of this directive at UNI so we don’t have anything further to share at this time.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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