Articles Tagged: Iowa Board of Regents

Committee chair thinks that’s ‘a major problem’

Shortly after an analyst from a high-profile conservative policy group two weeks ago presented lawmakers with evidence that more than 20 programs across Iowa’s public universities have a negative “return on investment,” a member of the Board of Regents contacted her with questions.

Warning Iowa is suffering from a “crisis in civics literacy,” a representative from the National Association of Scholars on Wednesday urged lawmakers to reform public university general education requirements, establish autonomous civics schools on its university campuses, and ensure education accrediting bodies can’t block Iowa’s reform laws.

A year after lawmakers passed sweeping legislation banning diversity, equity, and inclusion spending across Iowa’s public universities, legislators are taking aim at DEI-related curricular requirements — and the Board of Regents is in support.

Also, state lawmakers are once again considering changing Iowa’s legal K-12 school start date

Hoping to shield Iowa’s public universities from potential backlash to policy changes enacted by lawmakers, Republicans pushed forward a bill that would allow them to sue private entities that review the quality of colleges.

The proposed bill would ban Iowa’s regents institutions from having general education curriculum that teaches “identity politics” or claims systemic racism, sexism, oppression or privilege are inherent in U.S. and Iowa institutions.

In responding to a House proposal that would require the University of Iowa to establish a new “School of Intellectual Freedom,” a UI lobbyist on Tuesday announced campus plans to create a new “Center for Civic Dialogue and Leadership.”

Iowa’s new House Higher Education Committee has introduced a spate of study bills directed at Iowa’s public, private and community colleges and universities -- including several going further to limit diversity, equity and inclusion on the campuses and others imposing new mandates around what can and should be taught.

Also, the Iowa Senate is advancing new legislation that would require the teaching of fetal development in health and human growth classes

A representative from the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research urged Iowa lawmakers Wednesday to get more involved in higher education -- including by changing Iowa Code to give the Legislature power to eliminate or add departments on its public university campuses.

Just days before lawmakers convene Monday in Des Moines for the 2025 legislative session, the Republican chair of a new Iowa House Higher Education Committee sent a letter to the state Board of Regents advising it to reject a University of Iowa proposal to create a new “School of Social and Cultural Analysis.”

Adding to its more than 50 civil rights complaints in recent years accusing colleges, universities, and other academic institutions of race- and sex-based discrimination, the anti-affirmative action Equal Protection Project on Monday filed a federal complaint against the University of Northern Iowa.

The University of Northern Iowa has signed settlement agreements with five assistant professors promising them tenure and back pay after they filed grievances based on the institution’s initial denial of their promotion applications.

Ahead of its public universities’ charge to draft strategic plan updates by February, Iowa’s Board of Regents next week will consider an update to its own five-year plan that eliminates references to diversity and inclusion.