Campus reaction to Gov. Tom Vilsack’s decision Friday to sign the English-only bill into law has been negative.

Dan Douglas, professor of English, said the passage of the law makes him sick.

“It’s an unneeded law,” Douglas said. “There’s plenty of demand for English classes that can’t be met. What the legislature did was make English the official language and they also passed a bill adding $1 million for English as a second language classes in schools.”

Douglas said this would give schools more money to teach international children but would not provide any assistance to adults who are affected by the law.

“The people who are going to be most affected by the law are the adults, not the kids,” Douglas said. “What they need English for is everyday stuff: when they get a drivers license, go the grocery store, if they should find themselves in court, if they need to talk to the police.”

Cara Harris, president of the ISU chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she feels the law will encroach on the rights of non-English speakers.

“The worst case scenario [of the law] is an obstruction of justice and basic 14th Amendment rights would no longer hold for those who don’t speak English as their first language,” said Harris, sophomore in liberal arts and sciences open option.

She also said she was surprised that Vilsack had signed the bill into law.

“I know that he has been pushing actively to get more immigrants into the state and basically try to keep people in the state,” she said.

Emily Kinser, senior in materials engineering, said she feels the law would discourage immigrants and minority groups from contributing to the diversity of the state.

“At this university, look at the number of people who don’t speak English as a primary language,” Kinser said. “If they were forced to communicate solely in English then much knowledge would remain unspoken.”

Jean-Pierre Taoutel, temporary instructor of French, said the law could compromise the diversity of the state.

“Iowa needs to know if they want to be a diverse community or not,” he said.

“We have an example of Quebec and other countries where there are two or three other languages, so why not Iowa?”

Taoutel also said he felt additional diversity in languages would enrich, rather than threaten, the identity of the state.