Iowa Board of Regents tells UI, ISU, UNI to eliminate DEI positions not required by law

The Iowa Board of Regents is instructing the state's three public universities to eliminate all staff positions focused on diversity, equity and inclusion that are not necessary for the schools' accreditation or to comply with state or federal law.

The nine-member board voted to adopt the recommendation Thursday at its meeting in Cedar Falls. A law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds this year required the regents to review diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at the state's public universities.

Republican lawmakers, who control the Iowa Legislature, chastised administrators for the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa this spring over the cost of their DEI programs.

The Legislature considered a bill earlier this year that would have required the three universities to disband their DEI programs and forbid state money from being spent on a DEI office or administrator.

That bill did not pass, but Board of Regents President Michael Richards directed the universities in March to "pause the implementation of any new DEI programs."

Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, who led the bill to require universities to disband their DEI programs, thanked the regents for their work on the issue in an interview with the Des Moines Register.

"I think the recommendations are a good step forward," he said. "I appreciate the board approving them formally and look forward to seeing them being implemented over the coming months here."

Collins said House Republicans will have to discuss whether they want to pursue additional DEI legislation, but he said if it takes a new law to implement the regents' recommendations, "I'm certainly willing to do so."

In a statement, Courtney Reyes, executive director of the LGBTQ rights group One Iowa, condemned the Board of Regents' vote to "gut" inclusion efforts.

“The regents chose to align with an extremist group of House Republicans, showing blatant disregard for the compelling evidence from data, research, and the desires of the campus community," Reyes said. "Eliminating these crucial diversity, equity, and inclusion programs will devastate our universities' capacity to attract, retain, and prepare students for their future careers."

What does the Board of Regents say UI, ISU, UNI need to do with their diversity, equity and inclusion programs?

The recommendations adopted by the board instruct the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa to restructure their university-wide DEI offices to eliminate any DEI functions not required for accreditation or to comply with the law.

Any other DEI-focused positions not necessary for those reasons should also be eliminated, the board said.

Regent Nancy Dunkel, who voted against the recommendation, said the board should do more to support students.

"If a student came to school and did just what was necessary, where would they go? What would they be?" Dunkel said. "So we can do better than that and we should. And by us paring it back to just what is absolutely necessary is not good enough in my opinion."

The state's public universities are required to comply with state and federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in hiring or other programs based on race, sex, age, disability or other protected classes. Other DEI programs may be necessary to comply with NCAA rules, accreditation and to receive federal and state grants and financial aid.

The board also committed to adopt a policy, consistent with the law, "prohibiting the consideration of race and other protected class characteristics in admissions."

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year struck down affirmative action policies at universities, writing that universities cannot consider race in their admissions process. Iowa's public universities rely on the Regent Admission Index for applications, which does not consider race or gender.

And the board said the three universities should take reasonable steps to assure that no student, employee, visitor or applicant is required to disclose their pronouns or to submit a DEI statement or participate in DEI initiatives.

The board also instructed universities to standardize annual employee guidance for separating personal political advocacy from university business.

A draft recommendation would have required the universities to develop a proposal "to establish a widespread initiative that includes opportunities for education and research on free speech and civic education."

"It sounds like in retrospect we’re predetermining that this is a need on our campus and that we can afford to do it," Regent Jim Lindenmayer said of the original language.

The board amended that recommendation to instruct the universities to "explore" a free speech proposal, rather than develop one.

Students, alumni speak against removing DEI services

Several speakers weighed in on the DEI proposal during the public comment portion of the Regents' meeting on Wednesday.

Nicole Trip, a senior at the University of Northern Iowa majoring in social work, said defunding Iowa's diversity, equity and inclusion services will worsen the state's "brain drain."

"Most students I know came to the university because they knew there were systems in place that would provide community and support during their time on campus," Trip said. "There is not one student on campus who has not in some way been positively affected by a DEI service."

Trip said her social work education was elevated by the university's DEI services.

"I was given specific training on campus regarding minority and marginalized identities that now give me a competitive edge to get hired," she said. "I worry for the future students who may not have had that leg up."

Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy for One Iowa, spoke during the public comment period to say the report's recommendations ignored the input given by students, faculty and staff that overwhelmingly described the universities' DEI services positively.

"The authors have submitted a report that is entirely political theater and they expect myself and the campus community to take it seriously," Crow said.

Regents recommend increasing ideological diversity in faculty hiring

While the universities will be required to cut any DEI programs not necessary to comply with the law or accreditation standards, one of the board's recommendations is for the schools to explore recruitment strategies to increase "diversity of intellectual and philosophical perspective in faculty and staff applicant pools."

Regent Abby Crow said it seems contradictory to tell the universities to cut diversity, equity and inclusion programming while also telling the institutions to seek greater diversity of intellectual and philosophical perspectives in hiring.

"I don’t think we can pick and choose which aspects of diversity that we want to encourage more at the universities," Crow said. "I think that if we want these programs or hiring practices to be broadly universal, equal, I don’t understand how uplifting one and reducing others is fair."

Regent David Barker said he believes diversity of philosophical and political perspectives at the universities has been neglected, while other types of diversity have been promoted.

"I think the universities have done an excellent job of promoting many kinds of diversity at the university and we have a lot of diversity," he said. "I think though, we may have fallen short on diversity of ideological and political perspective."

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Board of Regents tells Iowa universities to cut DEI positions