Iowa State University Shutters DEI Offices in Accordance With New Mandates

Iowa State University Shutters DEI Offices in Accordance With New Mandates

This is happening in state after state. You love to see it.

The Gazette reports:

Iowa university DEI offices now closed

In a national racial reckoning that was revived more than a decade ago when a Black teenager named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed near Orlando, then-Iowa State University President Steven Leath in 2014 shared findings and recommendations from his campus’ “most comprehensive diversity study ever.”

One recommendation urged ISU to distribute “diversity resources” across its colleges and administrative units, allowing them to meet their “diversity goals.” Another recommended investing in a chief diversity officer — which Leath did in 2015, hiring ISU’s first-ever vice president for diversity and inclusion.

Reginald Stewart, earning $215,250 in that role his first year, developed initiatives to boost diversity through recruitment and retention of faculty, staff and students, among other things.

But nearly a decade after Leath’s actions, successor ISU President Wendy Wintersteen is facing new recommendations — or rather, directives — from the Board of Regents and state lawmakers likely to reverse, reduce or review the results from that earlier movement.

“Restructure the central, universitywide (diversity, equity, and inclusion) offices to eliminate any DEI functions that are not necessary for compliance or accreditation,” is the first of 10 mandates the regents issued last fall in response to lawmaker concerns that Iowa’s public campuses are overspending on diversity.

“The Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was established in 2015 to serve as a central resource, provide advice, and collaborate across campus, the community and higher education organizations,” Wintersteen said in April. “In response to the board’s directive, we will be closing the office in July.”

On July 22, ISU officially closed its DEI office, university spokeswoman Angie Hunt said. The closure cut five positions, although only two of those posts were filled at the time.

“University human resources provided assistance to the two employees affected by the office closing, in line with the university’s reorganization policy,” Hunt said. “One employee applied for and was hired for an opening in another unit on campus. One employee was laid off.”

In addition to the regents’ 10 directives, legislators this spring passed a measure baking into law many of the board mandates and others, adding in repercussions for violations. The law bars the universities from having DEI offices, having DEI-specific employees and spending money on DEI — except as required by law or for accreditation.

“Any person may notify the attorney general of a public institution of higher education’s potential violation,” according to the new law.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.