The Iowa Board of Regents voted Wednesday to approve revisions to its policy manual, edited to comply with the board’s adopted directives for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The board office proposed revising the regent policy manual to implement directives, which include requiring that no person on campus is compelled to disclose pronouns or DEI submit statements and creating a policy for prohibitions on considering race and other protected class characteristics in admissions.
The policy changes include:
- 3.2 Admission requirements common to the three state universities
- Universities, consistent with applicable law, shall not use race or other federal- or state-protected class characteristics as a factor in admission decisions for undergraduate, graduate or professional programs.
- 4.2 Freedom of expression
- Universities shall ensure no students, employee, applicant or campus visitor is required to submit a DEI statement or be evaluated based on participation in DEI initiatives, unless required for DEI-related compliance or accreditation.
- No employee, student, applicant or campus visitor is compelled to disclose their pronouns.
- The universities shall issue annual employee guidance regarding the separation of personal political advocacy from university business and employment activities.
No questions were asked surrounding the revisions, which were approved by general consent.
