KDSN RADIO News
Lawmaker says Iowa legislature will act if Regents don’t enforce anti-DEI law
The Board of Regents meets today to vote on a policy that says grades for students at Iowa’s three public universities must reflect their mastery of course content and skills — not their agreement or disagreement with particular viewpoints.
Republican Representative Taylor Collins of Mediapolis says it’s time for the board to enforce a 2024 law that bans diversity, equity, and inclusion programming at the taxpayer-funded universities. “It’s not appropriate that we have some of these ideologies, whether it be critical race theory or D.E.I., being pushed on Iowa students,” Collins said.
Collins said he and other GOP lawmakers were frustrated by the undercover videos recently posted online showing two University of Iowa staffers discussing efforts on the Iowa City campus to get around the D.E.I. ban.
“It honestly makes clear for many folks just how deeply this ideology is ingrained in many of these universities,” Collins said. “We have to ultimately change the culture at our state universities and it’s on the Board of Regents and the university presidents to acknowledge that there is a problem there.”
Collins, who is chairman of the Iowa House Higher Education Committee, said if there’s not “clear enforcement” of anti-D.E.I. policies on the campuses this fall, his committee will again take up the issue in January.
The Board of Regents' policy that was initially proposed would have banned courses with “substantial content” related to diversity, equity, and inclusion or critical race theory. It was redrafted to address concerns about academic freedom. The Board of Regents will vote today on a policy statement that says instruction at the three state universities should foster “critical thinking” and “avoid indoctrination of one perspective.”
