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Iowa Senate subcommittee passes bill to bar DEI offices at state entities, private colleges • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2025-04-01
An Iowa Senate subcommittee advanced legislation Tuesday to ban DEI offices and officers in certain public and private entities while noting there are proposed changes in the bill still to come.
House File 856 would bar state entities, including universities and community colleges as well as private universities, from spending any funds, public or private, on diversity, equity and inclusion offices or officers, with some exceptions. If found to be noncompliant with the law, private universities would become ineligible for the Iowa Tuition Grant program until they make changes — meaning students who receive Iowa Tuition Grant dollars would not be able to spend them at the offending universities.
The section of the bill pertaining to private universities was the main topic of discussion for members of the public, both in opposition and support. It was also the section that subcommittee chairman Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Oskaloosa, told those gathered he would be submitting an amendment to remove.
In the Iowa Tuition Grant’s more than 50-year history, Rozenboom said the Legislature has never added conditions to the program, and if it starts now, more conditions will added later.
“I’m very uncomfortable, personally … with dipping our toe into conditioning the Iowa Tuition Grant,” Rozenboom said.
He and Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge, signed off on the legislation, with Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, abstaining.
Patty Alexander, who identified herself as a “concerned mom,” was joined by other parents and lobbyists in support of the legislation. Inspired Life lobbyist Amber Williams said the bill will stop division sowed by DEI policies and activities and protects students from being judged by their demographics rather than their efforts and merit.
“I support this bill because it will hold higher learning institutions accountable and allow them to make corrections, and will ensure that the unhealthy and misguided pursuit of power, which DEI supports, will not be tolerated,” Alexander said.
Interfaith Alliance of Iowa lobbyist and Executive Director Connie Ryan opposed the bill and said DEI is about both acknowledging past disparities between different groups and their effects, and also about setting up every Iowan for support and success in the future.
The concepts of DEI are key to ensuring members of Iowa’s institutions, educational or not, are provided opportunities without erecting barriers, she said.
“That’s the goal of diversity, equity and inclusion. It should be the goal of Iowa’s elected officials,” Ryan said. “We are grateful that you took out private institutions. We hope that you would take out the rest of the language as well.”
Iowa Board of Regents State Relations Officer Jillian Carlson said the board is registered as “undecided” on the bill, but it is “generally supportive” of moving away from DEI, as is happening on the federal level.
With other legislation targeting DEI moving through the Statehouse, Carlson said the board would appreciate lawmakers aligning the varying definitions of DEI included in different bills, which Quirmbach and Rozenboom acknowledged.
Quirmbach said he was happy to hear of Rozenboom’s intentions to remove private universities from the bill, but said he wished community colleges and public universities were also included in the proposed amendment.
Echoing comments he made during debate of Senate File 507, which would bar local governments from utilizing DEI practices, Quirmbach said the ideas making up DEI are an asset to organizations wanting to ensure they have the best people and training for the job.
“In general, looking for people of high merit, you want to have the broadest possible pool of candidates,” Quirmbach said. “The bigger the pool, the more likely you’re going to find somebody who is absolutely, spectacularly wonderful. But there are certain groups that aren’t typically recruited.”
One acronym brought up by supporters of the bill was MEI — or merit, excellence and intelligence. Rozenboom said the tenets of MEI have been replaced over the years with DEI, with negative consequences.
Both he and Kraayenbrink said the public signaled its wish to do away with DEI in the last election, and this legislation will help clean up the mess.
“MEI resonates with me a lot more than DEI does, and I hope that’s the direction we can head from now on,” Rozenboom said.
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