Back in mid-March more than a month before the Iowa Legislature passed a bill imposing on Iowa’s public universities sweeping diversity, equity, and inclusion restrictions that go beyond directives from their governing Board of Regents Republican lawmakers sought a DEI update from the campuses.
A growing percent of students across Iowa’s public universities feel comfortable expressing their opinions on and off campus, in and out of class, and even on social media according to a second free speech survey Iowa’s Board of Regents administered earlier this year, just over two years after ordering its first following a string of campus incidents that drew intense criticism from Republican lawmakers.
In response to 10 directives the Board of Regents handed down in the fall to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion spending and programming across its public universities, presidents of all three campuses on Thursday shared significant changes underway – including the permanent closure of Iowa State University’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office.
For the first time in nearly seven years, Iowa’s Board of Regents has a new president in Sherry Bates a social worker who’s been on the board for nearly a decade.