Iowa Senate Education Committee Chair Lynn Evans and House Higher Education Committee Chair Taylor Collins today sent a letter to the Iowa Board of Regents urging the Board to adopt a clear, enforceable policy prohibiting DEI content from courses that fulfill students’ degree program requirements or core curriculum requirements.
The letter cites multiple videos released by Accuracy in Media indicating that DEI ideology remains embedded in academic offerings at Iowa’s public universities despite repeated legislative actions to eliminate DEI programs and practices across state government. Evans and Collins expressed particular concern that students are still required to take such courses as a condition of earning their degrees.
“Students at Iowa’s public universities should be free to pursue their education without being compelled to take courses to advance contested and divisive ideological frameworks,” the letter states. “No student should be required, as a condition of earning a degree, to enroll in classes that treat identity-based outcomes as settled orthodoxy.”
The lawmakers noted that the Legislature has already acted to prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars for DEI initiatives that prioritize group identity over individual merit. They argued that the continued presence of DEI-aligned content in required coursework undermines those efforts and raises questions about the universities’ commitment to changing the culture of higher education in Iowa.
“The public’s trust in Iowa’s universities depends on concrete action that demonstrates these institutions exist to educate, not to indoctrinate,” Evans and Collins wrote. “As the governing body charged with oversight of the state’s public universities, the Board of Regents bears primary responsibility for ensuring that students encounter a genuine marketplace of ideas and remain free to complete their degrees without being required to take courses steeped in divisive ideology.”
