Hunter
01/27/25
A new Iowa House Higher Education Committee is attempting to advance bills that would further restrict diversity, equity and inclusion on state-run college campuses, and dictate what can and should be taught.
The Gazette reports that the committee was formed to deal with proposals “containing significant reforms to Iowa’s higher education system,” House Republican leaders announced, that would turn “higher education system away from ideological agendas” and “back to the pursuit of academic excellence.” Its focus extends beyond the state’s three public universities to include community colleges and private institutions.
The committee has already introduced 15 bills, one of which would require the University of Iowa to create a new “School of Intellectual Freedom” as part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It would require teaching and researching what the bill describes as the “historical ideas, traditions, and texts that have shaped the American constitutional order and society.”
Other bills were aimed at expanding DEI restrictions to community colleges and prohibiting DEI offices and staff at Iowa private colleges and universities. Any private campus found in violation of the DEI law would have 30 days to correct the problem and document the resolution or lose access to the tuition grant program for the next academic year.
Also last week, the new House committee heard from an analyst from a conservative policy group who encouraged lawmakers to amend Iowa code to give them explicit power to add or cut university departments.