A bill that would revoke Iowa Tuition Grant money from private institutions that maintain a diversity, equity and inclusion office moves to the Senate floor after a 57-34 vote in the Iowa House of Representatives Feb. 24.
The Iowa Tuition Grant offers up to $7,500 a year to qualifying Iowa citizens to assist with tuition payments for private colleges and universities. House File 2488, if signed into law, would revoke this grant from Drake University if the Campus Equity and Inclusion office remains.
The bill has moved to the Senate education committee under Republican Sens. Mike Pike and Jeff Taylor, and Democratic Sen. Herman C. Quirmbach.
Republican Rep. Steven Holt said before the House voted that he believes merit should be the basis of admission and job opportunity, not inclusion.
“When we apply to colleges and whatever for positions, for promotions, what should the criteria be? Should it be race, should it be sex?” Holt said. “… We should be judged by our character, not by immutable characteristics. And that’s what this is about, to be clear.”
HF 2488 doesn’t affect course content, research, activities of registered student organizations, guest speakers or mental health services that discuss or involve DEI.
The bill also says any person may report potential violations, at which point the institution would have to provide documentation that either corrections have been made or that the report is baseless. If they cannot provide that documentation within 30 days, the Iowa Tuition Grant may be rescinded.
“To be clear, private institutions can continue to have DEI offices if they choose,” Holt said. “They just don’t get to receive taxpayer money in the form of the Iowa Tuition Grant.”
Republican Rep. Taylor Collins proposed this bill through the House’s higher education committee. Minority Leader Rep. Timi Brown-Powers says HF 2488 is typical of other legislation Collins and Holt have proposed in the past.
“They have been working for the last three years trying to remove all DEI programs in all of our public schools, community colleges and right now, private schools,” Brown-Powers said. “It’s a terrible bill — it’s an overreach into private schools. In doing this bill, all you’re doing is picking on the students.”
Terrance Pendleton, the associate provost for Campus Equity and Inclusion, expressed disappointment at the reintroduction of this bill.
“There continues to be this very strong anti-DEI rhetoric within the legislature, at least strong enough to propose the bill again,” Pendleton said. “That being said, I appreciate that we’ve had the time to kind of respond and prepare and plan for the scenario for which the bill does not only [pass the House], but the Senate.”
Pendleton says that even if this bill does get signed into law, he’s optimistic that while the office of Campus Equity and Inclusion would close, it doesn’t mean the impact goes away.
“This work is going to absolutely continue, regardless of the bill,” Pendleton said.
In the 20th episode of the Iowa Press podcast, Drake President Marty Martin said the University opposes this bill. He believes it to be an “extraordinary intrusion” into Drake’s values.
“As I read [the bill] and try to imagine everything that it might cover, I really see no stopping point,” Martin said. “… It would certainly have a chilling effect on speech, engagement, [and] conversation that we believe is essential to the full formation of a student. Any effort to link the Iowa Tuition Grant, which has been a phenomenal success for the state of Iowa, to these other policy objectives is troubling.”
Pendleton encourages all students, regardless of how the bill affects them, to recognize and feel the impact.
“I want to speak to those students who are worried, who are frustrated and who are angry,” Pendleton said. “I think they have every right to [have] those kinds of emotions … whether you’re student, faculty or staff.”
Pendleton says that with the loss of federal state funding comes the loss of connections with students.
“Our office provides students belonging, and the full potential of the individuals and innovation that drive our views, beliefs and values,” Pendleton said. “Regardless of where this bill goes or how it affects [us], we’ll kind of wait and see and you know, play the game as it was given to us.”
This bill needs to pass through committee by March 20 for it to be debated and voted on by the Senate.
