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.
James | Mar 1, 2024 at 6:34 am
From the Gazette (out of Cedar Rapids): “Neither ISU nor the universities of Iowa or Northern Iowa have or have ever had policies requiring students, employees, applicants or visitors disclose their preferred pronouns. As to why, then, a board ‘DEI study group’ included among its 10 recommendations one barring compelled disclosure, regents reported receiving feedback and anecdotal evidence of ‘situations when students, employees or visitors on campuses were asked to provide information regarding their personal use of pronouns in ways that made them uncomfortable.’”
Relying solely on “anecdotal evidence” is not how decisions like this should be made. There is evidence-based data that strongly suggests the value of DEI programs and their missions. While the mission has its problem areas, it’s not as if the Regents (or the Iowa legislature, for that matter) are providing any constructive alternatives. The Party of No continues their strong track record of pushing this state back 50 years. The data also suggests the harm (including economic harm) that can come from not being more inclusive. Case in point, the decreasing numbers of diverse people choosing to stay in (or move to) this state. The brain drain in Iowa is real and can be linked to efforts such as defunding DEI in the public arena.