On variety, fairness and belonging

In Iowa education

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED: GO TO THE END

The Iowa Legislature micro-manages the state’s public universities for the Iowa Board of Regents. In 2024, offices and staff supporting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) were defunded at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. This year the anti-DEI campaign is being turned into permanent law and extended to community colleges, local governments and the “activities” of state entities.

As a bonus, the House of Representatives is trying to use the power of the purse to tell Iowa’s 25 (remaining) private, non-profit colleges how to run their operations and dictate what Iowa students can study there.

On March 18, the House passed a bill with only Republican votes in favor that prohibits private colleges and universities from “establishing, sustaining, supporting or staffing a diversity, equity and inclusion office.” (The definition of “diversity, equity and inclusion” spans 79 lines.) The Senate Education Committee advanced the bill on April 3.

If the schools fail to comply or justify their existence to the state attorney general, they lose access to the Iowa Tuition Grant Program – $53 million in state money that financially-needy Iowa students can tap to make in-state private higher education more affordable.

The bill requires no court ruling to execute what would be a death sentence for many of the institutions, according to one former university president I have consulted, only Grinnell College and perhaps Drake University could survive the blow.

Similarly, House File 867 requires that at least 50 percent of the funds available for Iowa tuition grants go to students pursuing majors that correspond to (currently undefined) “high-wage and high-demand jobs.” So much for liberal arts education and good luck to any student still exploring “what they want to do when they graduate.”

Sounds to me like the beginning of an abusive relationship that colleges and universities can’t afford to leave. Who knows how else the schools can be made to conform (or else) as the handmaidens of politicians whose ideas can’t carry the day on their own but who use the force of law to impose them anyway.

Marion County Senator and Education Committee Chair Ken Rozenboom, recognizing a precedent even he is not willing to set, has vowed to strip private colleges out of the bill on the Senate floor and send it back to the House

The intimidated Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities — until the Senate subcommittee was scheduled — didn’t register to lobby on the bill attacking their members’ right to support diversity, equity and inclusion. The group declared it was “undecided.” Even Senator Rozenboom knows that intimidation was the point.

Hyper-stereotypical diatribes by some legislators make me wonder if they have personally visited a college campus to hear first-hand what DEI programs actually do. In the words of Winnebago County Rep. Henry Stone: Have we taken the time to “talk to one another, have a conversation, find out a little bit about each other?” Perhaps the Regents and the Association can extend invitations to have those conversations.

As floor manager of House File 856, Rep. Stone refused to answer questions, an unprecedented maneuver, apparently because Democrats had not tipped him off to their questions in advance. He spent 15 seconds introducing and describing the bill. Then — as has become the majority party’s custom — in “final comments” to which no legislator can respond, he launched into an ideologically-charged and hypothetical, anecdote-filled soliloquy laced with unreferenced “research” to claim that DEI is “an existential threat to the fabric of our society.”

Over the years, most legislation affecting public universities has not come from the Board of Regents, which is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate to govern the three universities. Yet each institution has its own lobbyist to defend their interests. When bills affecting them are filed, they almost always register “undecided” – as if they have no opinions or are “good either way.”

That’s a bad look for what some would argue is the second most powerful governing board in Iowa (after the Iowa Utilities Commission). Maybe the state should pay the volunteer Regents to have an opinion. In February, the Board voted to establish a legislative committee to respond to what’s being foisted upon them at the Capitol. Their first meeting was scheduled for March 28. The meeting was cancelled.

You would think that most volunteers asked to spend hundreds of hours in public service on a “governing” board would want to be treated professionally and respectfully, especially when they may think differently than those with power to command them.

I wrote to each of the nine members of the Board of Regents and asked a simple question: “Do you personally believe in and support what the Legislature and governor are directing the Board of Regents and the state universities to do with respect to diversity, equity and inclusion?

So far, five have answered:

Regent Christine Hensley: “Yes.”

Regent Jim Lindenmayer: “No, I do not.”

Regent Robert Cramer: “I'm in favor of every student feeling welcome at our universities. I believe it's in their best interests if all decisions of their college career are based on merit. So, I'm in agreement with moving away from the DEI approach. However, I also believe these decisions are best made at the Board of Regents level.”

Regent David Barker: “My position is explained in an op-ed I recently published in the Des Moines Register.”

President of the Board Shirley Bates, President Pro-Tem Greta Rouse, Nancy Dunkel, J.C. Risewick and Lucy Gipple (student representative) have not provided responses. This suggests to me they are opposed to or at least have serious reservations about the DEI offensive and how the war is being waged. I will update this post online if I hear more.

Something you won’t be seeing any more at the University of Iowa? Dialogue with stakeholders at the grassroots level suggests that attention to diversity and the unique needs of some patients is crucial in health care settings, among others.

To be fair, the student representative was just appointed in February to a vacancy that Gov. Reynolds failed to fill for eight months. This prompted me to wonder what process of its own the Board has undertaken to evaluate and respond to their external directives – information to which Regent Gipple could have access.

I e-mailed Mark Braun, who has been executive director of the Board of Regents since 2017: “Can you please detail for me the due diligence the Board has undertaken and any dialogues it has convened with stakeholders in anticipation of or as a result of state legislation passed or calls from others to address diversity, equity and inclusion? I would appreciate getting documentation on any findings resulting from such diligence and dialogue.” I hope they have solicited input from all students and are not putting the burden of speaking for all onto Regent Gipple.

I also asked, by the way: The Regents’ Legislative Committee was scheduled to meet on March 28. Why was the meeting cancelled? Will update this post if I hear more.

In his essay, Regent Barker interpreted some studies, trends and quotes from folks such as President Barack Obama to make his case that Iowa’s public universities should “return to merit as the criteria for hiring and admissions, and to give special assistance to students and employees based on need, not race, sexual preference or other characteristics.”

There are others more steeped in research on and direct experience with DEI as it works “on the ground” to engage in informative dialogue with the Board of Regents, assuming the Board is open to such exchanges. One question they may want to explore: Do the students paying most of the tuition and taking on massive debt to earn a degree think that diversity, equity and inclusion programs, activities and policies help or hinder their education and well-being?

In 1998, students covered 34 percent of the cost of their education at Iowa’s public universities. By 2023 that share had risen to 62 percent. Maybe students should be electing five or six members of the Board of Regents.

In Regent Barker’s op-ed I recognized the name of Tom Kochan, emeritus professor of human resources and management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In a previous job, I interacted with Professor Kochan through the Labor and Employment Relations Association. He came to Iowa to speak to the Dubuque Area Labor-Management Council. I sent Kochan a link to the article to alert him that his work was being cited in Iowa. Kochan responded with this essay, also published in the Des Moines Register.

For the record, Regent Barker contributed more than $120,000 to Republican candidates and party committees in the 2024 election cycle. That included $11,000 to Des Moines County Rep. Taylor Collins, appointed by House Speaker Pat Grassley (whose campaign has received $60,400 from Barker since 2020) to chair the new House Higher Education Committee. That committee is now producing most of the legislation affecting the public universities. Regent Barker has contributed $167,820 to Kim Reynolds since the 2016 election, more than a previous Regents’ president during the same time period (Bruce Rastetter: $166.700) Gov. Reynolds initiated the moves against DEI with an executive order in 2023.

Every year I served in the Iowa House of Representatives, local private colleges invited state legislators to have lunch with student recipients of Iowa tuition grants. When I was first elected, I represented four private school campuses in Dubuque. Every year I would host students at the Capitol and speak to various classes and student groups studying politics, nursing, social work, education.

Occasionally I would ask students how many had registered to vote or voted in the last election. Very few hands would go up. One time I blurted out: “I don’t know why I’m talking to you. You are dead to me.” After the horror yielded to laughter on their faces once they got the point, I handed out voter registration forms.

Will college administrators in Iowa be tormented for supporting or permitting activities like this in the future?

Getting even 25 percent of voters under age 25 to the polls can be considered a miracle. Who else can colleges and universities rely on to get the attention of public officials?

Alumni. Graduates of every institution in Iowa live in every county and legislative district in the state. Many of us went to school at a time when we didn’t have to mortgage our futures for an education and, perhaps, were the first members of our families to get college degrees.

Have graduates been briefed and mobilized? What if the people who have attended each of Iowa’s public and private colleges and universities who have stayed in Iowa to live and work were approached for help by their alma maters? The ask: In addition to contributing to the scholarship fund, can you weigh in on important public policy issues affecting education?

What if those citizens then reached out directly to their own senators and representatives? Who better than voters themselves to “ground truth” what Iowans really want our future to look like, sound like, be like.

Bottom line: Do ordinary Iowans want variety? Fairness? Belonging? Or not. Presumably, the Regents were appointed to reflect the educational values of all Iowans. If they are not going to engage all Iowans in that conversation, maybe public universities should be governed by the people paying most of the bills — the students.

UPDATE

Below is a fulsome response that a Board of Regents staffer provided to me following the re-iteration of my request for information when my original essay was posted. I will review and may revise/extend my remarks, but I wanted to make the complete response available to subscribers so you can read and listen for yourselves.

The Board’s DEI study group made its report in November 2023. It provides information on the process of putting together the report, a description of the central DEI offices at each institution, and much more. You can find the report here:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/1123_ITEM_11__DEI_Study_Group_Repor_CBA91840D4213.pdf

The Board approved 10 directives from the DEI study group at that November meeting, which you can find here:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/Board_Directives_62DBAF9AAC1FF.pdf

Additionally, you can find the video of the presentation at the below link, which is archived on the Board’s YouTube page. There was robust discussion after the presentation among Board members.:

At the Board's February 2024 meeting, the Board took action and implemented directives 4, 5, 7 and 10 by adding language to the Board policy manual. Here is a link to that item that was approved:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0224_GEHR_4b__DEI_Directives_C34B8F4DC9D8E.pdf

At the Board’s April 2024 meeting, the three Iowa public university presidents made presentations to the Board on their implementation of the DEI directives. At the conclusion of all three presentations, there was discussion and several Board members had comments. Here is the link:

You can find each of the university’s slide presentations from that April 2024 meeting here:

Iowa: https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/UI_DEI_B6C1D24BF8BAE.pdf

Iowa State: https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/ISU_DEI_94ADA9B2E4910.pdf

UNI: https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/UNI_DEI_59BDAC634745A.pdf

At the Board’s November 2024 meeting, a report on the progress of the universities was made to the Board. That report can be found here:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/1124_ITEM_8__DEI_Updates_047D4CA992F6B.pdf

The video of the presentation, including comments and discussion afterwards by Board members, can be found at this link:

Finally, at the February 2025 meeting, Board President Bates made comments that addressed DEI. You can find her remarks here:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/Board_President_Report__February_20_93AA1E0685DE7.pdf

Additionally, here are links to minutes from all the meetings referenced above (except February; those minutes are not yet posted as the Board will approve them at its upcoming April meeting):

November 2023 minutes:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0224_ITEM_4a__November_Minutes_C144EA9C9F1AF.pdf

February 2024 minutes:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0424_ITEM_7a__February_Minutes_1F7C53F221475.pdf

April 2024 minutes:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0624_ITEM_7a__April_Minutes_34254667C9C62.pdf

November 2024 minutes:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0225_ITEM_3a__November_Minutes_DC7ED60F2281E.pdf

Regarding the Board’s new ad-hoc legislative committee, it was approved by the Board at its February 2025 meeting; below is the memo with the particulars:

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0225_GEHR_5__Legislative_Committee_82FDD9A09FE43.pdf

The archived video of this being brought before the Board can be found at the below link; the presentation and discussion begin at 4:08:55.

The legislative committee has had several meetings so far and archived links to video of those meetings are below:

March 14:

March 21:

April 4: