After strident pushback from Republican lawmakers who accused the University of Iowa of falling short of its mandate to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on campus, UI officials on Thursday announced plans to close its renamed “Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity.”
A legislative proposal aimed at upping Iowa-resident enrollment in the UI Colleges of Medicine and Dentistry could deprive the institution of $5.7 million in out-of-state tuition income over a four-year span, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.
“I am directing the institutions to pull down any current or archived web pages regarding diversity, equity, and/or inclusion,” regents President Sherry Bates said in a statement last month following continued criticism from Republican lawmakers upset with any evidence of diversity, equity and inclusion work across the public universities.
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.
With lobbyists for Iowa’s public universities lingering in an “undecided” state on the dozens of bills introduced this session angling to reshape higher education, the Board of Regents this week will consider creating a new “legislative committee” tasked with taking a position on pending legislation.
A month after Iowa’s Board of Regents cut references to diversity and inclusion throughout its five-year strategic plan, Iowa’s public universities largely have done the same in response to legislation and regent directives curtailing all DEI efforts.
After eight months without a full nine-member Board of Regents, Gov. Kim Reynolds has appointed University of Northern Iowa student Lucy Gipple to fill the vacant student-regent spot, according to UNI.
Three days after a pair of Republican lawmakers contacted the Board of Regents with concerns over the number of genders listed on admission applications to Iowa’s public universities, all three campuses updated their forms to offer just three options: male, female, or “prefer not to answer.”
A day after the University of Iowa paused or slowed research-related grant applications, hiring, and general spending in response to funding cuts announced by the National Institutes of Health — the campus’ largest federal research funder — UI officials on Tuesday retracted that guidance due to a temporary restraining order on the NIH cuts.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Iowa author Marilynne Robinson reacted to the use of her name last week by a researcher and writer for the conservative National Association of Scholars, who urged Iowa lawmakers to solve a “civic literacy crisis,” and pointed to Robinson as an Iowan who embodies “the civics education and civic literacy of times past.”
Despite a court order blocking an attempted freeze on all federal grants, loans, and other forms of financial aid, researchers across Iowa’s public universities are being impacted by President Donald Trump’s executive orders — including those eliminating “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”
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.
In hopes of boosting enrollment and addressing Iowa’s workforce needs, the University of Northern Iowa is proposing slashing tuition rates by more than half for non-resident students from bordering states to match instate rates paid by Iowa residents.
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.
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