Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen, left, and University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson speak with Iowa lawmakers Feb. 24, 2025. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson told Iowa lawmakers Monday that, while the university is being careful with language, diversity, in the broadest sense of the word, “still matters.”
Rather than having special privileges or programs for only certain students, Wilson said the university works to meet students where they are with the goal of helping everyone, regardless of their background or other aspects of their identity, thrive and graduate.
“I can’t imagine getting rid of the word diversity, you all,” Wilson said. “Now, if you tell me I need to, I will, but it doesn’t actually reflect who we are. We welcome students from all backgrounds, from all regions, from multiple viewpoints and with different experiences, and what we say is, ‘You’re a Hawkeye now, come in and we’re going to do what we have to do to make sure you get to graduation.’ That’s our commitment.”
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Iowa lawmakers took the opportunity after a presentation from state universities on new appropriations requests to ask college presidents, as well as the president of the Iowa Board of Regents, about diversity, equity and inclusion, potential changes to federal funding and more.
Leaders from the UI, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa spoke with the Iowa House Education Appropriations subcommittee Monday about how they’ve used state dollars and how they hope to use additional funding in the upcoming years, if received from the state.
Wilson made these comments in response to a question from Rep. Elinor Levin, D-Iowa City, who asked how first-generation student support programs are being impacted by directives and state laws barring DEI offices and activities on college campuses. Wilson said the university’s First Gen Hawks program, and many other student support services, aren’t and were never housed in a DEI office.
University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen also voiced their institutions’ commitment to student success across the board, with Wintersteen saying ISU has a “long record” of giving students their chance at academic success and will continue to do so.
Nook said in his remarks conversations previously held at the university revealed that the work relating to DEI that UNI conducted at the time was born from a commitment going back to the university’s founding.
“That commitment was to make sure that every single student that came to our campus had an opportunity to be successful in reaching their educational, their professional and their personal life goals,” Nook said.
UNI has been restructured to continue this commitment while still falling in line with requirements from the board of regents and state and federal governments, Nook said. He said the university is figuring out students’ needs and what makes them successful, not to build programs specifically for anyone, but to put the right people and policies in place to ensure everyone thrives.
Rep. Brooke Boden, R-Indianola, shared a concern with Wilson that the UI is still noncompliant with orders to remove DEI language from department names and other titles, as she is still seeing evidence of this on university websites. She said she worries about potential losses of federal funding if the matter is not addressed.
Wilson said the university is “working pretty rigorously” to comply with directives from the board of regents, state and federal government, and she feels the UI is in compliance. Any evidence of DEI on university websites should amount to articles previously written on prior DEI activities, she added, and asked the representative to send over what she saw.
Iowa Board of Regents President Sherry Bates, asked by Boden to address how the board directs universities in following the law and handling noncompliance, said the directive to review websites and pull down questionable items so it can be further analyzed will be “impressed” upon the universities once again.
Programs at ISU were also scrutinized by Rep. Samantha Fett, R-Carlisle, during the meeting, who asked whether it is still appropriate for a course renamed to “U.S. Cultures and Communities” to still list DEI as a topic in light of laws that have changed.
“I think that is an important question, and something that we’re considering and trying to understand how that fits,” Wintersteen said. “So we will look at that as we look at the legislation for this year and make a determination at that time.”
Another concern Levin brought up to Wilson was one she’d been hearing from her constituents with connections to the UI about the announcement from the National Institutes of Health capping indirect cost funding at 15%. Although the action is currently halted in the courts, Wilson said the UI could lose as much as $40 million in funding for these costs, which include hiring people to clean the labs research is conducted in, protect patient safety and data, and more.
“We’re trying to work very carefully with our congressional representatives to make sure they understand the risks that are before us and that we do a better job of communicating what it is we do with the money that we receive,” Wilson said.
Budget requests aim at health care, workforce needs
Like last year, the UI is focusing its fiscal year 2026 appropriations requests on expanding access to and quality of health care in Iowa, Wilson said. The UI is asking for a $10 million increase in its funding from the state with the goal of expanding Iowa’s health care workforce and bettering rural health care in the areas of mental health, maternal health and primary care.
If allocated, the funds would go to offering 200 scholarships a year to resident students going into health care and hiring faculty to grow clinical mental health care slots by 22, increase community pharmacist training from five to 10 students a year and “train 25 hospitals and 100 nurses and providers to support transfers for complex pregnancies,” according to the presentation.
ISU’s appropriations requests were geared toward rural economic development, Iowa businesses and agriculture. The largest ask was for a $4.75 million increase to the university’s agricultural experiment station and its outreach and extension programs.
“The funds will advance workforce development focused on the next generation and upscaling the current workforce, increasing productivity through digital and precision agriculture and having the ability to develop technologies but also deliver them through exciting opportunities like Planter University, or to be able to continue to respond to crisis situations like we did during COVID,” Wintersteen said.
Planter University is a series of workshops for farmers and others in the agriculture industry focused on planter equipment and best practices for different situations.
The university is also requesting $1.5 million to support veterinary diagnostic laboratory operations, and $1 million to establish a new scholarship in the Production Animal – Veterinary Early Acceptance Program to provide a full in-state tuition scholarship with a requirement to work in rural Iowa for at least five years.
UNI is seeking a $2.5 million increase in general education appropriations to help control tuition costs and further the gap between its tuition price and the other state universities’ prices, Nook said, as the difference in Iowa is around $1,000 compared to the more than $3,000 difference between public research universities and regional comprehensive universities averaged across neighboring states.
Nook said the university is also asking for $3 million for workforce recruitment, though it would not go through general education funding. With these funds, UNI would allow students coming to the college from bordering states to pay in-state tuition, which he said would bring more students into Iowa, where many of them would stay after graduation.
The university is also seeking $1.63 million for its UNI@IACC program to continue offering grants and scholarships to students to fill the gap between community college and UNI tuition costs, and $1 million for its civics education center.
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