The President of the Board of Regents is responding to questions by lawmakers about whether the state schools have done enough enough to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
President Sherry Bates made a statement during the Board’s meeting Thursday. “We are all aware, DEI has been a central focus during the last two summers and legislative sessions. While we have made significant progress, we need to complete the work,” Bates said. Representative Brooke Boden of Indianola had specifically questioned information about DEI on the University of Iowa’s websites.
Bates says the UI has been taking action on the DEI issues, and cited an example. “After working with the Board Office for the past several months, the University of Iowa announced that the three living learning communities will no longer exist after the end of spring semester,” she said. “We understand that some are upset, but to comply with the recent decisions, this is a path forward.”
Bates said the efforts need to continue. “While there have been administrative eliminations and restructuring, the universities need to look again to see if there are additional changes that should be made. There has been work done on the university web pages, but a simple search shows there is a lot more work to do,” Bates said.
Bate said it may appear to some that nothing has been done, she said this is not the case, but they must continue to work on it. “I am directing the institutions to pull down any current or archived web pages regarding diversity, equity and inclusion. Once the pages are down, then the universities, in consultation with the Board Office, can determine what pages need to exist but rewritten,” Bates said.
Bates said that all three universities have fulfilled the February 24th request from the governor. “In her letter, the governor requested that by March 6th, each university identify any existing contract with the federal government that has DEI provisions along with the date of the agreement, contracting parties, dollar volume and an estimate of the percentage of the work to be completed,” she said. Bates says the Regents, university administrators, faculty and staff, must examine what they are doing now and what we will be doing going forward to ensure that they are following the spirit of the laws and executive orders on DEI.
Bates also mentioned bills in the legislature that would direct the Board to review programs and how they fit with the high demand jobs and workforce needs. “We do not need to wait for a bill. I am directing the Board Office, in consultation with the universities, to begin the review now and to have a full and complete report to the board by its November meeting at the latest,” Bates said.
Bates said she knows that there are some who believe the Board and the universities move too slowly in being responsive to concerns that are raised, but said there are many examples to show that that is not true.