Regents’ Indoctrination hunt targets ideas

Iowa’s Board of Regents has decided its next target on state university campuses is what it calls “indoctrination.”

It could have been worse. The board initially contemplated a measure that would have barred public universities from requiring courses that include diversity, equity, inclusion or critical race theory for a minor or major.

That proposal drew sharp criticism from faculty, staff and students.

So, the board decided this week to update existing academic freedom and syllabi posting policies to explicitly state “instruction should be presented in a manner that fosters critical thinking and avoids indoctrination of one perspective.”

“Faculty are expected to uphold academic integrity, encourage open and respectful inquiry, and present coursework in a way that reflects the range of scholarly views and ongoing debate in the field,” the updated academic freedom policy says.

Of course, we’re in favor of open and respectful inquiries, as well as a range of scholarly views and ongoing debate. Who isn’t?

But who gets to decide what indoctrination is and what is not?

Will it be the Republican-dominated Reynolds administration, the Republican Legislature, the Republican attorney general or the GOP-dominated Board of Regents?

So much for a “range of scholarly views.”

Is the rule aimed only at liberal “indoctrination, while conservative views are considered free speech?

“I don't want any of the DEI, CRT, woke left stuff being taught in any of our classes,” said regent Robert Cramer, referencing the original plan, according to The Gazette’s Vanessa Miller. “But I understand the difficulty of trying, from the outside, to dictate what's being taught.” Cramer also said the board believes in academic freedom and free speech.

So, the same board members and politicians who banished Diversity, Equity and Inclusion DEI from state university campuses because helping minority students could lead to “reverse racism” will now keep watch for “indoctrination.”

We should always be wary when the powers that be create mechanisms that could be used to ban ideas that run afoul of the ruling ideology. The pressure to avoid topics that are counter to conservative dogma will be tremendous.

Students are not well-served by academic freedom rules that are not exactly free. It also hurts the universities’ efforts to attract quality faculty and researchers. And that matters to all of us because our universities are vital to the state’s economy.

The Board of Regents should not jeopardize what’s right with our universities by emphasizing a political agenda that claims they’re deeply flawed. Abandon the indoctrination hunt.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com