Morans:
A year after lawmakers passed sweeping legislation banning diversity, equity, and inclusion spending across Iowa’s public universities, legislators are taking aim at DEI-related curricular requirements — and the Board of Regents is in support.
Lobbyists representing the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa have registered “for” House Study Bill 53 — which, among other things, would bar the campuses from requiring students take a DEI or critical race-theory course to graduate.
Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison
Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, during a recent subcommittee meeting advancing the bill said that’s for the best.
“I would give a word of caution to our regent universities,” he said. “I’m really glad to hear you’re supporting it, because it’s going to be done one way or another — the easy way or the hard way.”
In voicing his support for the proposal, Holt said last session’s legislation targeting DEI offices, training, staffing, and other spending did not go far enough.
“DEI still maintains a strong and toxic presence in public universities, including Iowa, through course requirements that force students into politicized DEI classes,” he said.
Iowa State, for example, has a “U.S. Cultures and Communities requirement” for undergraduate students that can be satisfied by classes like “Race, Ethnicity, and the U.S. Criminal Justice System” or “Gender and Sexualities in Society.”
“The requirement emphasizes the systemic oppression of groups in American society based on their race, ethnicity and gender,” Holt said of the ISU requirement. “The political agenda behind this requirement is obvious. Students must be taught that the United States is a systemically bigoted country which justifies radical actions to overturn the American constitutional system.”
Accusing the universities of wasting “an enormous amount of taxpayer and tuition money,” Holt said, “The American people are done, and the people of Iowa are done with tolerating that which divides us.”
“I think a better name for diversity, equity and inclusion — based upon what I've seen in these courses — would be adversity, inequity and exclusion, because that is what these programs are doing.”
The bill not only would require the Board of Regents to establish a policy barring its campuses from requiring students enroll in a DEI or critical race-theory course to graduate, but it would prohibit the universities or any of its employees from requiring or incentivizing faculty to use or participate in DEI or critical race-theory practices.
That includes any requirement they include that material in any course or as a condition of tenure or promotion.
The proposal also includes a mechanism for reporting violations.
“We are done with it, and we will not tolerate it any longer,” Holt said.
In supporting the proposal, regent lobbyist Jillian Carlson said, “Largely this mirrors past legislation … and it is the direction that the board and the federal government has been moving.”
Opponents of the bill — including students or former students — stressed the need for cultural competency in the workforce and in the academic institutions preparing them to enter it.
Speaking in favor of the measure, though, was Danny Carroll with The Family Leader — a conservative organization with a political action arm.
“Iowa nice is real,” he said, pointing to a medical professional he recently spoke with who chose to come back to Iowa from the west coast “because Midwest people are nice, courteous.”
But, Carroll added, “DEI, CRT and all of the baggage associated with that and the assumptions built into it are offensive to Iowans who are nice and respectful, because it takes that and tries to force it upon them.”
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, in opposing the proposal said he disagrees with the notion that diversity-competency is unnecessary.
“One of the speakers mentioned you don’t know what you don’t know,” Wilburn said, “and frequently students will take a course that they are required to take — and they think they don’t have any biases toward any one particular group, or faith, or political persuasion — but when you get into the meat of it and discussing it, they gain some self-awareness about themselves, as well as the other group.”
Wilburn also pushed back against Carroll’s mention of “Iowa nice.”
“Iowa nice is a thing,” he said. “But not everybody subscribes to Iowa nice. And to insist that all Iowans have ‘Iowa nice’ — whether you have a disability, whether you are a person of color, whether you are older, whether you are in rural Iowa, whatever it might be — not everyone will respect you.”
Sharing a personal experience to illustrate the need for diversity and cultural-competency curriculum, Wilburn said a few years ago a member of the public called him a racial slur and suggested he be lynched.
“That person wasn’t Iowa nice,” he said.
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, said he condemns that type of behavior but doesn’t think DEI training and curriculum will help.
“I'm a Christian. I read my Bible. The Lord made us all. We are all one race, one blood, racists exist and they suck,” he said. “The problem with all of this is there's zero proof that this is helping make people less racist. There's actually a lot of people out there arguing it's doing the opposite of that.”
So what’s the best path forward, he asked.
“What used to be the path was we would unify in America around the Constitution, around the Bill of Rights, and that's what I think we have to get back to,” he said. “Trying to come up with divisive things, things that have been debunked — like the 1619 Project and things like this — it's not working. It's making things worse. This stuff is crap. It shouldn't be mandated on people, and I think that we need to continue to try and get this out of there and allow people to unify the way they used to unify.”
www.thegazette.com
A year after lawmakers passed sweeping legislation banning diversity, equity, and inclusion spending across Iowa’s public universities, legislators are taking aim at DEI-related curricular requirements — and the Board of Regents is in support.
Lobbyists representing the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa have registered “for” House Study Bill 53 — which, among other things, would bar the campuses from requiring students take a DEI or critical race-theory course to graduate.
Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison
Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, during a recent subcommittee meeting advancing the bill said that’s for the best.
“I would give a word of caution to our regent universities,” he said. “I’m really glad to hear you’re supporting it, because it’s going to be done one way or another — the easy way or the hard way.”
In voicing his support for the proposal, Holt said last session’s legislation targeting DEI offices, training, staffing, and other spending did not go far enough.
“DEI still maintains a strong and toxic presence in public universities, including Iowa, through course requirements that force students into politicized DEI classes,” he said.
Iowa State, for example, has a “U.S. Cultures and Communities requirement” for undergraduate students that can be satisfied by classes like “Race, Ethnicity, and the U.S. Criminal Justice System” or “Gender and Sexualities in Society.”
“The requirement emphasizes the systemic oppression of groups in American society based on their race, ethnicity and gender,” Holt said of the ISU requirement. “The political agenda behind this requirement is obvious. Students must be taught that the United States is a systemically bigoted country which justifies radical actions to overturn the American constitutional system.”
Accusing the universities of wasting “an enormous amount of taxpayer and tuition money,” Holt said, “The American people are done, and the people of Iowa are done with tolerating that which divides us.”
“I think a better name for diversity, equity and inclusion — based upon what I've seen in these courses — would be adversity, inequity and exclusion, because that is what these programs are doing.”
‘Mirrors past legislation’
The bill not only would require the Board of Regents to establish a policy barring its campuses from requiring students enroll in a DEI or critical race-theory course to graduate, but it would prohibit the universities or any of its employees from requiring or incentivizing faculty to use or participate in DEI or critical race-theory practices.
That includes any requirement they include that material in any course or as a condition of tenure or promotion.
The proposal also includes a mechanism for reporting violations.
“We are done with it, and we will not tolerate it any longer,” Holt said.
In supporting the proposal, regent lobbyist Jillian Carlson said, “Largely this mirrors past legislation … and it is the direction that the board and the federal government has been moving.”
Opponents of the bill — including students or former students — stressed the need for cultural competency in the workforce and in the academic institutions preparing them to enter it.
Speaking in favor of the measure, though, was Danny Carroll with The Family Leader — a conservative organization with a political action arm.
“Iowa nice is real,” he said, pointing to a medical professional he recently spoke with who chose to come back to Iowa from the west coast “because Midwest people are nice, courteous.”
But, Carroll added, “DEI, CRT and all of the baggage associated with that and the assumptions built into it are offensive to Iowans who are nice and respectful, because it takes that and tries to force it upon them.”
‘Gain some self-awareness’
Iowa Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-AmesRep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, in opposing the proposal said he disagrees with the notion that diversity-competency is unnecessary.
“One of the speakers mentioned you don’t know what you don’t know,” Wilburn said, “and frequently students will take a course that they are required to take — and they think they don’t have any biases toward any one particular group, or faith, or political persuasion — but when you get into the meat of it and discussing it, they gain some self-awareness about themselves, as well as the other group.”
Wilburn also pushed back against Carroll’s mention of “Iowa nice.”
“Iowa nice is a thing,” he said. “But not everybody subscribes to Iowa nice. And to insist that all Iowans have ‘Iowa nice’ — whether you have a disability, whether you are a person of color, whether you are older, whether you are in rural Iowa, whatever it might be — not everyone will respect you.”
Sharing a personal experience to illustrate the need for diversity and cultural-competency curriculum, Wilburn said a few years ago a member of the public called him a racial slur and suggested he be lynched.
“That person wasn’t Iowa nice,” he said.
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, said he condemns that type of behavior but doesn’t think DEI training and curriculum will help.
“I'm a Christian. I read my Bible. The Lord made us all. We are all one race, one blood, racists exist and they suck,” he said. “The problem with all of this is there's zero proof that this is helping make people less racist. There's actually a lot of people out there arguing it's doing the opposite of that.”
So what’s the best path forward, he asked.
“What used to be the path was we would unify in America around the Constitution, around the Bill of Rights, and that's what I think we have to get back to,” he said. “Trying to come up with divisive things, things that have been debunked — like the 1619 Project and things like this — it's not working. It's making things worse. This stuff is crap. It shouldn't be mandated on people, and I think that we need to continue to try and get this out of there and allow people to unify the way they used to unify.”
Iowa lawmakers advance another anti-DEI bill targeting university curriculum
A year after lawmakers passed sweeping legislation banning diversity, equity, and inclusion spending across Iowa’s public universities, legislators are taking aim at DEI-related curricular requirements — and the Board of Regents is in support.
www.thegazette.com
