The Iowa Board of Regents will receive details at its November meeting of universities’ efforts to comply with state law banning certain DEI offices. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Iowa’s state universities have reallocated more than $2.1 million originally used for positions and offices relating to diversity, equity and inclusion on campus as a result of Iowa Board of Regent directives and a state law set to go into effect next summer, according to a report released Tuesday.
Nearly a year after the board of regents implemented directives for state universities to restructure or eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion offices, positions and programs, the board and universities are working to come under compliance with a state law barring them from opening, maintaining or funding DEI offices.
Board President Sherry Bates announced at the board’s September meeting that board office staff had begun analyzing university departments, programs and positions relating to DEI in order to bring the universities under compliance with legislation pertaining to DEI activities on college campuses. Bates, along with Regents Greta Rouse, David Barker and JC Risewick, led this process.
Senate File 2435 bars the University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University from launching, maintaining or funding DEI offices, which it defines in the law. Public universities cannot hire, either themselves or through a third party, anyone to conduct the duties of a DEI office, or assign these duties to a current employee. They also cannot make or compel anyone to submit a DEI statement.
Units that are exempt from the legislation include student organizations, student recruitment offices and offices tasked with making sure the university is following state and federal laws and court orders, according to the report.
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Despite the bill not going into effect until July 2025, Bates emphasized at the September meeting that the board and universities’ work will be complete by Dec. 31.
“This will not be a static effort,” Bates said at the meeting. “We will continue to ensure we are following the law.”
According to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report, board office staff worked with the universities starting in June to study areas of their operations and determine whether they are in line with the legislation “from a structural perspective.”
They split the units they reviewed into four categories, the report stated, based on whether they meet the definition of DEI under the law and whether they are exempt from it, either because they meet the criteria in the legislation for exemption or because they are required by law or for accreditation.
“While a particular division, office or unit might be categorized as exempt based on its core operational mission, each program, activity, or training provided by the unit must also be assessed over time to assure continued compliance with the law,” the report stated.
In addition to studying university programs and departments, the group also reviewed state and federal laws, as well as accreditors, as some have policies relating to DEI.
The review identified commonalities among the three universities, including positions that could have DEI aspects or responsibilities being vacant, broader definitions of DEI than the one written in the legislation and certain programs that were still in transition in response to the board’s directives from last November.
Each of the universities will provide updates to the board at its Nov. 6-7 meeting at the University of Northern Iowa.
Iowa State University
Before the legislation was signed into law, Iowa State University eliminated its central DEI office in response to the board directives, which eliminated five positions and made available $789,000 to be put toward “other university priorities,” according to the report.
The university carried out an internal compliance review across campus, which led to positions and units in need of changes under the new legislation.
According to the report, ISU identified nine positions with a job profile called “Multicultural Student Success,” which focused on the success of students who “would fall into the DEI definitions” described in the legislation. The profile was found to not accurately reflect their work with students, which encompassed a much broader range of identities and backgrounds. As a result, the employees in these positions will transition to more general student success roles, and the current job profile will be eliminated.
In its review of 17 campus units, ISU found that 12 programs do not fall under the bill’s definition of DEI offices, such as the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. The university’s Office of Equal Opportunity does meet the bill’s standards of a DEI office, but is exempt, as its functions are “necessary to ensure compliance with state and federal law,” the report stated.
ISU Extension and Outreach, along with three other college programs, were found to need further review and possible changes in order to comply with the law, according to the release. The outreach program receives USDA funding to oversee federal programs like 4-H, and Extension and Outreach must periodically conduct civil rights reviews to show the programs aren’t discriminatory in order to keep receiving funding.
“Iowa State University is reviewing USDA requirements, working with county partners and evaluating adjustments necessary to ensure that it can meet its federal obligations while complying with the provisions of Chapter 261J prior to its effective date,” the report stated.
The LGBTQIA+ Center for Student Success, known as The Center, will be restructured as a result of the legislation, according to the report. Its physical location will remain, but the university will turn it into a “general reservation space” with study areas and computer labs for all students. Activities currently handled by the two center staff members will be given to student organizations to run, and their jobs will be updated to provide support for all students and student organizations in addition to managing the center.
Students protested on the Iowa State campus last week, raising concerns about possible changes to inclusive facilities and programs under the law, including the LGBTQIA+ Center.
Iowa State University students protest on campus against anti-DEI law
The university also identified the Thomas L. Hill Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, or ISCORE, as a program in need of changes. Described by the Division of Student Affairs as a “comprehensive forum on issues of race and ethnicity at Iowa State University and beyond,” ISCORE hosts its own conference and sends a delegation of ISU students, faculty and staff to the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education every year.
ISU will close the ISCORE office, the report stated, moving the one employee in it to another position in the Division of Student Affairs, and change the conference to a one-day event where ISU community members and invited speakers will conduct research-based presentations on topics like “support for people with different abilities, veteran status, anti-Semitism and religious accommodations, socioeconomic status, and other protected classes.”
The university is still working on reviewing the department-level committees focused on DEI, according to the report, and those whose work is found to not fall under one of the bill’s exemptions will be changed or eliminated.
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa restructured its Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in response to the board directives, renaming it to the Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity and eliminating its Office of Inclusive Education and Strategic Initiatives, which the report stated mostly handled the university’s DEI efforts.
The two units within the Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity are the Office of Civil Rights Compliance and Office of Access and Support. The UI has eliminated scholarships and programs “targeted towards minority students,” according to the report, and student support services have been broadened to ensure they are available to all students.
The UI eliminated 11 full-time DEI positions as a result of its review, six of which were vacant due to the fiscal year 2024 legislative hiring freeze. The university reallocated the $868,219 freed up by the positions to “other student success and programming needs,” according to the report. Position descriptions for an additional 59 roles were changed to reduce or get rid of DEI-related functions.
A “comprehensive review” of all UI DEI-related committees, programs, activities and non-mandatory trainings is being conducted by the university, the report stated, in order to identify them as obligated by law or accreditation standards to operate as-is or not. The UI will categorize those not found to be necessary by law or accreditors as Formal, Participatory or Informal, with Formal and Participatory programs needing to comply with the legislation and Informal programs not needing to be changed, as they don’t receive university financial support or administrative oversight.
Of the seven organizational units already evaluated by the university and board office, the report stated two needed further review. One area, the three living-learning communities “named with reference to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity,” according to the report, were found to be open to any undergraduate student and don’t meet the definition of a DEI office under the legislation.
Four cultural houses also underwent additional review, which led to the restructuring of positions and other changes. The physical locations of the cultural houses will remain but be opened for reservation by any student organization, with any DEI activities offered in them put on by the student organizations.
Each cultural house had a coordinator whose function was to manage the physical space, support student organizations there and other programming, according to the report. Two coordinator positions have been eliminated and the remaining two will now oversee all of the physical locations and prerogative support to a “broad array” of student organizations. They will not administer DEI programming or advocate for its implementation, the report stated.
According to the report, the coordinators for the UI’s Asian Pacific American Cultural Center, Latino Native American Cultural Center and Pride Alliance Center have all resigned. The only position slated to be filled again is the coordinator for the Pride Alliance Center, who will oversee all of the cultural houses with the other coordinator.
University of Northern Iowa
The University of Northern Iowa has already eliminated its Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice and its chief diversity officer position under the directives of the board of regents, and the office’s department of gender and sexuality services was eliminated. The multicultural education, retention and mentoring and military and veteran student services departments were moved to different areas of the Division of Student Life.
Of the 25 positions the university reviewed that involved DEI in some way, five were eliminated, and $486,144 was reallocated to other student success initiatives, according to the report. Five positions with functions related to DEI were changed to allow for “broad-based student support” or academic advising, the report stated. One position was also moved as a result of the reorganization of the Division of Student Life.
The university also reviewed six organizational units, five of which do not fall under the bill’s definition of a DEI office, according to the report. UNI renamed its Office of Compliance and Equity Management to the Office of Civil Rights Compliance to more accurately reflect its responsibilities.
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