Sad:
After strident pushback from Republican lawmakers accusing the University of Iowa of falling short of a mandate to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, UI officials announced Thursday plans to shutter its renamed “Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity.”
“The Iowa Board of Regents has directed the University of Iowa to close the Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity (AOD), effective March 27,” according to an update from the UI. “This action will ensure the university is in compliance with state and federal laws as well as recent changes to accreditation requirements across numerous disciplines.”
As a result of the closure, the university will reassign three employees and cut one position, “resulting in a furlough.”
“Since last spring, the university has eliminated 12 full-time positions to comply with Iowa Board of Regents directives and state law,” according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication.
The UI debuted its new Access, Opportunity and Diversity division last year after regents directed all three of the state’s public universities to “restructure the central, university-wide DEI offices to eliminate any DEI functions that are not necessary for compliance or accreditation.”
Such mandates were baked into Iowa law after legislators last session passed a bill barring all DEI-related spending, staffing, training or programming on the campuses. This session, lawmakers have proposed a range of bills going further — including one that would prohibit the campuses from requiring students to take any DEI-related training or classes and from requiring faculty to include it in their curricula.
Additionally, following President Donald Trump’s election, he and federal agencies levied instruction to stop all DEI-related work — threatening to withhold funding to those out of compliance.
Those orders compelled Iowa lawmakers to circle back to the universities and regents about concerns with non-compliance.
“As you know, we have hundreds of millions of dollars of federal money coming down the pike, that if we're not willing to comply, that we're going to miss out on in the state of Iowa,” Republican Rep. Brooke Boden of Indianola told UI President Barbara Wilson and Board of Regents President Sherry Bates during an appropriations committee meeting in February. “So this is a is a major concern for me to still be seeing so much of that out there.”
Rep. Brooke Boden, R-Indianola
Wilson, at that meeting, said her campus feels “as though we have complied with the law” — reporting, “We’ve closed offices, we've gotten rid of every DEI committee in every department across every college.”
“We have retained a central office, but we've eliminated about 11 positions in that central office, and it's focused primarily on civil rights, access and opportunity,” she said, adding, “For us, diversity still matters.”
“And when I say the word ‘diversity,’ I don't mean just race or gender or sexuality. I'm talking about first-gen students, students from rural communities, students who have different religious backgrounds, students who are in the ROTC, our military veteran students,” she said. “All of those types of students reflect diversity of experience at the University of Iowa. So I can't imagine getting rid of the word diversity, you all.”
But, Wilson conceded, "If you tell me I need to, I will.”
After strident pushback from Republican lawmakers accusing the University of Iowa of falling short of a mandate to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, UI officials announced Thursday plans to shutter its renamed “Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity.”
“The Iowa Board of Regents has directed the University of Iowa to close the Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity (AOD), effective March 27,” according to an update from the UI. “This action will ensure the university is in compliance with state and federal laws as well as recent changes to accreditation requirements across numerous disciplines.”
As a result of the closure, the university will reassign three employees and cut one position, “resulting in a furlough.”
“Since last spring, the university has eliminated 12 full-time positions to comply with Iowa Board of Regents directives and state law,” according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication.
The UI debuted its new Access, Opportunity and Diversity division last year after regents directed all three of the state’s public universities to “restructure the central, university-wide DEI offices to eliminate any DEI functions that are not necessary for compliance or accreditation.”
Such mandates were baked into Iowa law after legislators last session passed a bill barring all DEI-related spending, staffing, training or programming on the campuses. This session, lawmakers have proposed a range of bills going further — including one that would prohibit the campuses from requiring students to take any DEI-related training or classes and from requiring faculty to include it in their curricula.
Additionally, following President Donald Trump’s election, he and federal agencies levied instruction to stop all DEI-related work — threatening to withhold funding to those out of compliance.
Those orders compelled Iowa lawmakers to circle back to the universities and regents about concerns with non-compliance.
“As you know, we have hundreds of millions of dollars of federal money coming down the pike, that if we're not willing to comply, that we're going to miss out on in the state of Iowa,” Republican Rep. Brooke Boden of Indianola told UI President Barbara Wilson and Board of Regents President Sherry Bates during an appropriations committee meeting in February. “So this is a is a major concern for me to still be seeing so much of that out there.”
Wilson, at that meeting, said her campus feels “as though we have complied with the law” — reporting, “We’ve closed offices, we've gotten rid of every DEI committee in every department across every college.”
“We have retained a central office, but we've eliminated about 11 positions in that central office, and it's focused primarily on civil rights, access and opportunity,” she said, adding, “For us, diversity still matters.”
“And when I say the word ‘diversity,’ I don't mean just race or gender or sexuality. I'm talking about first-gen students, students from rural communities, students who have different religious backgrounds, students who are in the ROTC, our military veteran students,” she said. “All of those types of students reflect diversity of experience at the University of Iowa. So I can't imagine getting rid of the word diversity, you all.”
But, Wilson conceded, "If you tell me I need to, I will.”
University of Iowa to shutter its renamed Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity this month
After strident pushback from Republican lawmakers who accused the University of Iowa of falling short of its mandate to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on campus, UI officials on Thursday announced plans to close its renamed “Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity.”
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