Walking It Back
The Iowa Board of Regents will meet next Wednesday and Thursday, and among the items on the agenda will be discussion of the report of a study group that reviewed each of the three regents’ universities diversity, equity and inclusion programs, known as DEI.
Opportunists used the death of George Floyd to push through their DEI-focused agenda across the country. Now, three years removed, many wonder if that reaction was an overreaction. That led to a state law being passed, requiring the regents board president to appoint a study group.
The key recommendations are to change or eliminate unnecessary DEI functions and responsibilities…and you can bet those on the political left will make noise against that.
The report indicated that the programs at UNI, Iowa, and Iowa State were reviewed to determine the extent to which each sustains the institution’s mission of delivering a high-quality education accessible to all Iowans, are required to keep legal or compliance obligations, and whether they should be reduced or eliminated.
The report makes 10 actual recommendations, but the bottom line is to eliminate any DEI offices or functions that are not necessary for compliance or accreditation and to ensure support services are available to all students or employees as tied to federal requirements. Further, if those functions that are necessary can be folded into an existing entity with a broader mandate—that is, not one labeled with the limitation of DEI—they should be handled by the broader entity.
In short, it’s truly inclusion rather than segregation into special agencies.
Oh, and the group recommends making sure no one affiliated with the three universities is compelled to share their pronouns. Frankly, that alone is worth whatever it cost to do the study.
They also suggest recruiting for diversity of viewpoints, not just characteristics of birth.
I don’t know that this will be approved or that change will actually be made, because it all just makes too much sense. But here’s hoping that previous actions taken in fear of being labeled as something bad will be seen for what they actually were…and tax and tuition dollars will go for things more centrally tied to actual education, and not indoctrination.
