The Drake University Board of Trustees unanimously extended President Marty Martin’s contract to the end of the fiscal year 2029. The Chair of the Board of Trustees, Mark Ernst, announced the extension in an email on Feb. 25 to Drake students and faculty.
Ernst said Martin has made Drake more accessible and welcoming through the Tuition Guarantee, the John Dee Bright College and The Ones Campaign. These efforts have helped create the most diverse student body two years in a row, according to Ernst.
“President Martin’s bold vision for the University has brought about transformative and positive change that will have a lasting impact for generations to come,” Ernst said in an email. “We have much to celebrate over the last decade, but our work under his leadership is not done. While higher education faces multiple headwinds, we are confident that President Martin will continue to shape Drake and enable us to collectively flourish into the future.”
One of the headwinds currently impacting Drake’s future is the Iowa Legislature. House File 854, if passed, would have prohibited private universities and colleges that participate in the Iowa Tuition Grant program from operating diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
On Feb. 28, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 418 into Iowa law, which made Iowa the first state to remove a protected class from its Civil Rights Act, specifically transgender individuals. In response, President Martin sent an email to students titled, “A Welcoming Place for All,” in which he stated that he will continue to ensure Drake is a place that accepts everyone regardless of their differences and backgrounds.
“My message was sparked by the revisions to the Iowa…Civil Rights Code,” Martin said in an interview with The Times-Delphic. “But it wasn’t just about that. It was about the bigger purpose of Drake being a place of robust welcome, celebrating difference and seeing that as a great strength of ours. Diversity in any enterprise and in any system is a strength. Homogeneity is not. It tends to cause dysfunction in an organization.”
Martin said his policies come from his belief in the institution’s value of encouraging diversity and inclusion for all. Because, for Martin, the job isn’t just professional — it’s also personal.
“These are the values that have been articulated over decades and have been lived up to over decades. They get refined, and they might get more emphasis at one time or another, and we’ve placed a great deal of emphasis on them over the last 10 years. But they have been the values of the institution for a long time,” Martin said. “So, I wouldn’t be here if they didn’t align with me.”
This sentiment is shared by Martin’s colleague, Provost Sue Mattison, who will continue to work with Martin through the next academic year.
“These are challenging times for higher education, and to have someone in that position who is committed to Drake and committed to the values of the institution is good for Drake and good for everyone,” Mattison said.
Even with the Iowa Legislature’s potential to influence Drake, President Martin is enthusiastic and ready for whatever comes. He hopes to leave behind a legacy for the students and presidents after him.
“I’m really motivated and inspired by this place… What we do here is really important, and it’ll be more important tomorrow than it is today, and more important the day after that than it is tomorrow, because of the environment we find ourselves in,” Martin said. “And this is not to say that Marty Martin’s the end-all-be-all president of all time. I’m just saying this position, working with my colleagues and working with our students, nothing presents a more powerful opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others than that. So that’s the core reason why I stay.”
Morgen Neuhauser contributed to reporting.
