The Iowa Board of Regents will consider a new draft of its strategic plan at its meeting next week, edited to remove language pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion.
According to documents released Tuesday, the body’s new 2022-2027 strategic plan would remove certain guidelines and words in response to legislation that has passed over the past two years. In addition to DEI changes, the board would remove references to special schools no longer under its purview and gender balance on boards.
“The edits in the attached draft are intended to ensure alignment of the Board of Regents Strategic Plan 2022-2027 with all state and federal laws,” the document stated.
The strategic plan, approved in February 2022, says it is a “living document” that provides a touchstone for the board and the universities it governs. When enacted, it included information relating to the Iowa School for the Deaf and Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, as well as language about diversity, inclusion and underrepresented students in its statements of core values and priorities.
Three pieces of legislation passed in 2023 and 2024 have caused the need for changes to the strategic plan, according to the document. Senate File 514 and Senate File 2096, both passed in 2023, brought the Iowa School for the Deaf and Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired into the Department of Education and eliminated requirements for gender balance on state boards and commissions, respectively.
Passed in 2024, Senate File 2435 bars state universities from opening, funding or maintaining positions and offices relating to diversity, equity and inclusion that aren’t required by law or for accreditation.
The University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University have already restructured or eliminated offices and positions in response to DEI directives put in place by the board before the legislation passed and in order to comply with the legislation.
In the edited draft of the board’s strategic plan, instances where the Iowa School for the Deaf and Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired have been struck, as well as a line stating that gender balance is required on the board. The name of the board itself and its current members have also been updated.
Under the board’s core values in the document, edits replaced the phrase “diverse and inclusive” experiences with “high-impact academic.” It also replaced “respect for differences” with “mutual respect for intellectual differences” and removed “inclusion” from its “practices for transformative growth” category.
The phrase “among members of diverse backgrounds, culture and beliefs in nurturing environments” has been removed from the board’s dispositions, leaving “Respectful interaction shall empower critical thinking, free enquiry and open communication.”
References to underrepresented and underserved students and populations have been removed from the document as well. Underrepresented students have been removed from the goal to “expand onboarding programs for incoming students, with a particular focus on first generation and non-traditional students.”
The directive to universities to set “five-year goals to expand online programs in areas that are consistent with campus expertise and market demands” has had a portion of it removed that would have these programs “enhance opportunities as well as target underserved populations and industries.”
The board will vote on whether to approve the new plan document at its Jan. 15 meeting.
Brooklyn Draisey is a Report for America corps member covering higher education for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this story first appeared.
