Iowa State University students are organizing to spread the word and their concerns about anti-DEI legislation and its impacts on campus. (Photo by Getty Images)
When Galvin Smith came to Iowa State University last year as a freshman studying graphic design, one of the first stops they made was to the Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success.
It was an important moment for them, Smith said, coming from a small, conservative town in east Texas, to see the pride flags and informational materials out in the open. As a transgender, queer person of color, it felt like they had a space where they could just be.
Smith, as well as other students belonging to minority groups on campus, have found resources, friendship and support at the center, the Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity, Multicultural Student Affairs spaces and the gender-inclusive housing offered at Freeman Residence Hall, as well as other areas.
However, legislation aimed at defunding and decommissioning diversity, equity and inclusion offices have a growing number of students concerned that the services they rely on could suddenly change, or be done away with entirely.
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“I’ve had a really good time at Iowa State, which is why these bills are so heartbreaking,” Smith said.
ISU students are organizing and taking action to make their worries known, with the backing of community members and state legislators who share their concerns.
Senate File 2435, passed at the end of the legislative session, prohibits public universities from creating, maintaining or funding DEI offices unless required by law or for accreditation. Before this law was passed, Gov. Kim Reynolds directed the Iowa Board of Regents to form recommendations, which turned into directives, about DEI offices, programs and positions on college campuses.
The University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University had already restructured or eliminated DEI offices in response to the directives. With the law set to take effect in the summer, the board of regents announced in September it was working with university officials to come under compliance with the law by the end of 2024.
ISU: No decisions about the future of LGBTQ+ center, other services
University spokesperson Angie Hunt said in an emailed statement that university leaders are working with the Iowa Board of Regents to develop plans to “comply with state legislation related to diversity, equity and inclusion,” but no decisions have been made about the LGBTQ+ center, Freeman Hall or other campus programs and organizations.
ISU officials will present the university’s plan at the board of regents’ next meeting, Hunt said, which will take place Nov. 6-7 at the University of Northern Iowa.
“University leaders recognize that there are a lot of questions and appreciate the patience of the campus community as they work through this process,” she said in the email. “They remain committed to providing a welcoming environment that allows all students to succeed.”
Students form grassroots organization
Students have held multiple meetings to discuss the legislation and ways to show their opposition both in and outside of the university, forming a grassroots operation with some working to create an official student organization.
Jackie Snook, an economics student who just transferred to ISU this semester, said she heard about the legislation from others living in Freeman Hall, as it could affect all of them. A meeting was held with students, community members and representatives from local organizations in early October to discuss the legislation and how Ames groups could fill gaps left by the campus offices and services that could potentially be shut down by the legislation.
After that meeting, an online group was formed, Snook said, which tripled in size in the week between meetings. Groups have already worked to spread the word through word-of-mouth and writing messages on campus sidewalks in chalk. The groups used mottos like “diversity is our strength, equity is our right, inclusion is our duty,” ISU student Cassandra Cook said.
Students have also reached out to the board members about the legislation to share their concerns directly, Snook said, and they’re working on planning future actions to publicize their issues with the legislation.
“I’ve just been so blown away by just how far this group has come in such a short amount of time,” Snook said.
Like Snook, many students involved in the group now didn’t know about the legislation until very recently, and are worried about what it could do to the services they utilize.
Cook said she ate lunch at the Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success almost every day when she first started college, and most of the friends she’s made while at school she met through the center. Being able to go to a place where she automatically had something in common with others there made it easier to make friends, she said.
“I have those people now, I have other ways of contacting them and such, but I wouldn’t have met them without this resource, and I want other incoming students to have that same experience,” Cook said.
Aashika Janmanchi, a freshman who lived in Taiwan until moving to Burlington the year before she started at ISU, said it was kind of overwhelming to see so much diversity in Iowa and at the college after living across the world. Now some of the services she’s found in her short time there are potentially in danger.
“I hope to actually have those resources still, because I literally just got here,” Janmanchi said.
State lawmakers offer support, listening ears
Also present at the meeting were Sen. Herman Quirmbach, Rep. Ross Wilburn and Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, all Democrats who represent the Ames community. They said they attended in order to listen, provide advice when asked and to show the group that their lawmakers are behind them.
Wessel-Kroeschell, who managed the bill that added gender identity and sexual orientation to the Iowa Civil Rights Code, said she’s been concerned about inclusivity and equity in general for a long time. She shares the students’ worries about ISU’s DEI cuts and the possibility of losing important resources.
“They are just working so hard with their hearts and souls and minds, trying to find ways to preserve services that are so important to them,” Wessel-Kroeschell said.
As the former public events coordinator for Reiman Gardens, Wessel-Kroeschell said there is always room for improvement when it comes to DEI programs and trainings, but the legislation that was passed is wrong, and anyone who voted for it is “on the wrong side of history.”
Quirmbach said he was “thrilled” to attend the meeting and speak with students, where he shared information on what areas of the university the legislation does not cover, like student organizations and the admissions department, and the different ways to vote.
By going after programs that these students rely on, Quirmbach said legislators who supported the bill may have “awakened the dragon.”
“Not that these kids are shy or withdrawn, but there’s nothing like having your basic rights attacked to mobilize people, to get them energized, to get them activated, and once they’re active, once they’re turned on to activism, it’s hard to turn them off,” Quirmbach said.
Wilburn encouraged the students, and anyone else who has been feeling scared or frustrated about legislation like SF 2435, to get out and vote in the upcoming election. Wessel-Kroeschell and Quirmbach echoed the sentiment.
“We can vote and start to make the change,” Wilburn said.
Students expressed their appreciation for the legislators’ support.
“There are people representing us who have our best interests in mind, and that’s ultimately what you want from a democratic republic,” Cook said. “So it’s nice to know that, at least to an extent, that is the case.”
Hope and fear about what lies ahead
Before learning of this legislation, Smith was planning to live in Freeman Hall’s gender inclusive housing for most, if not all, of their college career. That is still the hope, but if Freeman is changed under the legislation, they said they will have to consider moving out.
“I won’t have a safe place to be, because I’m nonbinary, so I’m not going to really feel comfortable in either the men or the women’s dorms,” Smith said.
They’re operating right now under the hope that none of the services they love and rely on will change, because they’re not sure what they’ll do if they aren’t accessible anymore. Other students’ emotions range from hopeful to cynical, but they agreed that the most important thing is to raise awareness about the legislation and the impacts that could be seen across campus in order to inform both those impacted and not.
While the general feeling from the students was that many students still don’t know about the legislation, word is starting to get out. In addition to hearing their peers discuss it, ISU senior Krystal Nguyen said she’s heard students in communal learning spaces bring it up.
She said she believes the work they’re doing is making an impact on the student body, and hopefully more students will stand up to try and preserve DEI services for future students.
“I believe there are a lot of people who care but don’t know what’s happening, and if they did know, then they would be taking action, they would be joining coalitions like this, or they would be voting, and they’re not doing that because they are not informed about what’s happening,” Cook said. “And that’s the main demographic that I want to see us work with, because I think those are the people that we have the most potential to mobilize in support of our cause.”
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