Meeting Public Comments

Subcommittee meeting and times are as follows:

A bill for an act relating to higher education, including diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, tuition, and administrator hiring at state universities, membership of the state board of regents, and student-employer work and tuition programs at state universities and community colleges.(See HF 2558.)

Subcommittee members: Collins-CH, Cahill, Stone

Date: Monday, February 12, 2024

Time: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM

Location: RM 103, Sup. Ct. Chamber

Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.

Comments Submitted:

Download Comments

02-10-2024

Mary Jobst [Citizen, Grandmother ]

PROIn the aftermath of the greatest massacre of innocent babies, women children and men in Israel since the Holocaust on October 7 2023, we have witnessed the evil fruit of the indoctrination of young adults in our most elite institutions of higher education with the evil ideology of Diversity,Equity, Inclusion . Students engaged in antisemitism against other students with the presidents of these Institutions testifying before Congress that this behavior is acceptable! Now a couple of them have been forced to resign, and hopefully there will be reforms in these institutions. We must have reforms to eliminate DEI in ALL institutions and places of employment. The first step in reform of higher education is to root out the evil ideology of DIE, which really means dividing people according to group identities based upon skin color and sexual identities and labeling them accordingly as either oppressed or oppressors. There is no diversity of ideas/ opinions in this ideology. This ideology promotes racism. This ideology erases individual merit. This ideology has its roots in Marxism, which is totally antithetical to the founding principles of the USA enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.As grandparents, we are saving for the higher education of our grandchildren. But we will never send money for any of them to study at any Institution that promotes DEI.

02-12-2024

Izzy Kippes []

I urge a NO vote on this legislation, as I understand that it allows for complete government overreach into and control of public universities. The board of regents, selected by the government and representing the government, should not have the power to veto hiring individual administrators or disallowing certain programs. Its upsetting that the party of freedom and liberty is so concerned with controlling upper education and stifling the right of all people to attend. I would ask members of the government to keep their hands off our universities. In the words of Ronald Reagan: the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. Thank you.

02-12-2024

emma denney []

Please vote NO on HF 2327. This bill is a huge expansion of power by the legislature over the state universities. Allowing the board to directly shape all administrative hiring, while in the same breathe directly politicizing the board by including sitting legislators, sets dangerous a precedent. This will directly hinder universities from serving ALL of their students, creating an environment where any projects and initiatives that appear to support "diversity, equity, and inclusion" are blocked, while the board of regents and universities can wash their hands of them, saying they're "just following what the legislature" wants. Putting all DEI projects on the potential chopping block could remove vital support for victims of sexual violence on campus, support that I and sadly many other women have needed and relied on during our time. please vote NO.

02-12-2024

Anika Maculangan []

As a POC attending a university in Iowa, I urge the rejection of this legislation as it stands for the erasure of diverse communities within academic and scholastic environments in which I believe, everyone deserves the right to have a place in. Not only does this silence certain voices, but this also restricts and censors educational curriculums and reduces it to a westernized perspective that doesnt at all, offer a worldly learning framework that is able to grasp various, different cultures that CLEARLY EXIST. This potential leglislation is likely to hinder and limit students capacities and capabilities to be involved and engaged in a pedagogical setting that is allembracing and allencompassing in what communities it can uplift and encourage. And if anything, school is one of the things that most influence ones personal beliefs and philosophies as to how one must approach society and life and if you must ask me, we must always act under an allin, comprehensive mindset that is aware of EVERYONE and is in favor of EVERYONE.

02-12-2024

Justin Comer []

Please vote no on this bill. This is a regressive effort to make our state universities less inclusive. There's no good reason to make our educational institutions more of a hostile environment. Passing this bill would shut people out of higher education.

02-12-2024

Olivia Anderson []

I am AGAINST HF2327, as this bill would effectively defund and destroy all areas of the university that encourage progressive dialogue within academic settings as well as removing protections for historically oppressed and silenced groups in our state and in our state and in our country. It jeopardizes students' access to education as it has the potential to kill scholarships given by DEI organizations, and it removes important spaces for students to find safety and solidarity that is essential for growth alongside their education. This bill alienates and endangers queer and trans students, putting them into hostile environments that will also deeply impact their ability to learn and grow. This bill creates a standard of censorship in the state that is counter to the reputation Iowa has built as a pioneer in educational standards, and suppresses the rights and freedoms of minorities at our universities. I urge our politicians to listen to the people they are supposed to represent and vote no on HF2327

02-12-2024

Kate Doolittle []

I urge you in the strongest possible terms to vote NO on this bill. Students who benefit from DEI programs on campus already feel othered and alienated on campus, as conservative groups host hateful bigoted speakers and campus police intentionally target minorities for arrest. Vital campus programs already have budget and hiring freezes making it much more difficult to do the valuable work they do. Passage of this bill would only worsen the problem by giving the state control over how DEI programs operate and which programs can continue. VOTE NO!

02-12-2024

Storm O'Brink []

Vote NO. DEI is not your enemy, it enriches Iowa colleges and enhances student learning. DEI initiatives help welcome marginalized students, and passing this legislation sends the message that marginalized students don't belong here. This bill is thinly veiled racism.

02-12-2024

Courtney Collier []

I support HF 2327. Please also expand this to k12 schools. The DEI roles and practices do nothing but breed discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination. DEI has taken us backwards in terms of racial divisions.

02-12-2024

Sarah Dodd []

As a student at the University of Iowa and a lifelong Iowa resident, I urge a NO vote on HF 2327. This bill is blatant overreach that will only make Iowa a more hostile place for every person in the state, not just the POC and LGBT people this bill obviously targets. DEI is crucial to the function of our colleges and universities, in their culture, research, quality of education, and all work done within their walls. It ensures the best opportunities for the best candidates with minimized fear.

02-12-2024

Jenny Kula []

Please vote NO on this legislation. This is an overreach by our government to police public universities. There is no good reason for this legislation, it is not constructive, it is fully made to fuel a pointless culture war. The state should not be making higher education less accessible or inclusive.

02-12-2024

Mandy Gilbert []

Please support this bill and continue to defund discriminatory practices in education that depend on tax payer dollars Kcollege. The public would be in an uproar if the regent universities required a course in Christianity in order to graduate yet Iowa regent universities are requiring their students to take DEI a woke cult religion that contradicts what the civil rights in 1964 were designed, equal opportunity not based on immutable traits. Thank you for addressing this issue that is dividing this country.

02-12-2024

Felicia Pieper []

Vote NO on HF2327. Universities must be free to create policies and programs that respond the needs of their students, staff, and faculty. This legislation is a huge and concerning overreach. The entire university structure is designed to support the most privileged students. Removing DEI programming further disenfranchises marginalized students and widens disparities.

02-12-2024

Maeve Reynen []

I urge you to vote NO on HF 2327. This bill gives governmental power and oversight into one of the few avenues for genuine, status quo shifting thought, critique, and action in the academic sphere. Our elected officials should have no say in the funding and access to DEI initiatives. I cannot stress this enough this bill and thought process behind it is indicative of our country's descent into fascism. Help stop it.

02-12-2024

Lex Letourneau []

Vote NO on this bill. Iowa has long been lauded as a great place for secondary education and universities have only expanded upon this as many students from in and out of state seek study at our higher education institutions. This bill would harm our students and our education within the state at every level.

02-12-2024

Michael Roberts []

I am opposed to this legislation. DEI efforts help to make all communities feel welcome at our institutions of higher learning. Everyone benefits from efforts to be inclusive and welcoming. I find it highly inappropriate that the Board of Regents ignored survey feedback of the university staff, faculty, and students which was overwhelmingly in favor of DEI efforts by burying the data in an appendix to their report. Stop attacking marginalized groups and focus on real issues that affect Iowans lives like the high cost of child care, polluted waterways, and child hunger. This bill shamelessly prioritizes attacking conservative boogeymen while ignoring the real suffering of citizens in our state.

02-12-2024

R J Heth []

Please favorably pass HF 2327 through. Every caring individual believes in respect for all persons. The current expression of support for diversity has taken a wrong turn and essentially preaches a doctrine of exclusion in many of our educational institutions. You have an opportunity to bring back balance and inclusion through the passing of HF 2327. Liberty, justice, and rights for all. Thank you for your time and service. RJ Heth

02-12-2024

Anemarie Ganea []

Vote Yes for this bill. HF 2327. Why would anyone accept a position/ acceptance only because of their sex, color ? Not on merit? Nobody has to validate your beliefs. We are all created by GOD on his image. We are equal by design. Work hard for why you want.

02-12-2024

Daniel Mills []

I urge you to vote NO on HF 2327. This bill would harm our higher education system in Iowa, especially for students and faculty of color. This bill sends the signal that Iowa is a hostile place to live, work, and study for marginalized people. At a time of rising violence and extreme inequality, we should be honestly and openly confronting the role of race, sex, gender, and disability in how power is employed in our state schools.

02-12-2024

Kayla Nguyen []

Please vote NO for this bill. DEI supports students with disabilities, students who are veterans, students who are in any marginalized group. DEI is mental health. DEI is why we are able to take time off for religious holidays. DEI affects our student scholarships.DEI doesnt just impact multicultural students it affects us all. We have the right to exercise diversity, equity, and inclusion through our freedom of expression.

02-12-2024

Andrew Boge []

I urge members of the subcommittee to vote NO on HF2327. This would dramatically restructure higher education in the state of Iowa to give the legislature considerably more power over how people, such as the president, are hired and the workings of equity work at the university. This is oversight that dismantles many of the systems and structures in place that ensure accountability, transparency, and democratic governance when making decisions that affect university communities. While I agree that tuition costs should be frozen for students, I do not agree that the president would be hired through a special committee that is largely closed off to the public (and doesn't include considerable input from actual university faculty, staff, and students). I also strongly oppose the effectors to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion staff, offices, and programs that help foster a community of openmindedness, collaboration, and community. Once again, this is simply bad policy that will hurt higher education in Iowa. I urge you to vote NO on HF2327.

02-12-2024

teri patrick []

I support HF2327 including the removal of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) positions from college campuses. DEI roles and practices perpetuate discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination rather than fostering genuine inclusion and unity. DEI themes are woven into classes and the student affairs divisions as well I would like this bill to address that as well. As expensive as college has become, students and families should not be forced to pay tuition to support this ideology to meet graduation requirements, nor should tax dollars be supporting this agenda. I would also like to see it expanded to K12 schools as well. Thank you for bringing this bill forward.

02-12-2024

Joseph Seo []

Please vote NO on this bill. As a POC who recently graduated from UIowa and utilized many different DEI resources, this is extremely saddening to hear. POC already have it tough as it is in Iowa and theres no reason to make PWIs even less inclusive than they already are.

02-12-2024

Rick Phillips []

Please advance HF2327. Any bill that eradicates harmful, divisive and misleading indoctrination such as DEI, CRT and CASEL is best for preserving the minds of innocent children. DEI is the pathogen to quality education and destroys a mind, the complete opposite of teaching skills that lead to life. DEI indoctrination does not help to develop critical thinking skills. Its failure is evidenced in the rioting mobs of young people supporting gender identity, Palestinian Hamas terrorists and statues of Satan in the Iowa Capitol. Let's end the madness. Pass the bill.

02-12-2024

Spencer Armstrong []

I urge you to vote NO on HF 2327, as it is yet another attempt by the state to seemingly nullify any exposure people might get to differing opinions and experiences to the ones they believe make for the most easily controlled population. Conservative leaders have been frothing at the mouth to cut DEI funding for a long time, and this bill would give them every right to shut down all safe spaces on campuses for BIPOC and queer students to find community while pursuing higher education. If you really believe that making life harder for those students should be a priority, thats on you, but as your constituent (the people whose opinions you are supposed to represent), I say NO to HF2327.

02-12-2024

Nina Reyes []

Please vote NO on HF 2327. As a person of color attending the University of Iowa, DEI and Multicultural and International Student Support and Engagement have made a massive positive impact on my college experience in a predominantly white institution. Without policies protecting DEI and spaces such as the Asian Pacific American Cultural Center, I don't believe I would have found the community and support I need to succeed academically.

02-12-2024

Courtney Cooke []

Please vote NO on HF 2327. As a student of Asian descent at a predominately White university, the University of Iowas Asian Pacific American Cultural Center (a resource that could be defunded should this bill pass) feels like a home away from home. As a student employee here, I have learned valuable, practical skills such as event planning, delegating, leadership, hospitality, and conflict management. Students of all backgrounds are welcome at the APACC, whether it be to attend an educational event or just to study and socialize. I have been to our sister centers that serve African American students, Latino and Native American Students, and LGBTQ+ students, and I have been welcomed to those places with open arms despite not holding those identities myself. Yes, some of the events hosted as these centers may discuss political themes, but when you are part of a minority group in the United States, your existence is political. These events are meant for students to have a space to discuss policies that affect them, which is I feel is more than appropriate to have at a university that wants to value free speech. Many of the people who will be voting on and discussing this bill will never know what it is like to be a minority in a predominately White space. As long as the public universities in Iowa continue to use minority students as a selling point, the least they could do is provide funding for spaces that help them personally, socially, and academically succeed. The existence of these DEI programs do not effect the lives of the legislators voting on it (despite these programs being around for several years, it only seemed to come up after it became a political trend), but the lack of these programs will affect many students who utilize them today. Thank you for your consideration.

02-12-2024

Robert Nazario []

We need to scrape all Marxist ideologies from the public square, that includes. DEI, CRT and ESG policies and agendas. I am in favor of this bill and wish to expand to all paid for by we the people schools. Our kids should not be indoctrinated by these Marxist equity programs.

02-12-2024

Sara Ferneding [New Fashion Pork]

Please vote YES on HF2327. DEI further divides, excludes & indoctrinates & has no place in our society. It is a perversion of true equality that will continue to tear apart the fabric of our country.I also ask that you include an amendment to include the removal of DEI from our most vulnerable K12 students as well.

02-12-2024

Ang Malenda []

Vote NO on HF2327. This bill drastically harms higher education systems in Iowa, restructuring the balance of power in ways that continue a history of exclusion and discrimination. If the goal of higher education or education in general is critical thinking then it seems quite contrary to be centralizing power in ways that support only one (1) way of thinking. Education should be accessible, inclusive, and supportive for all DEI plays a crucial role in fulfilling this promise. I strongly oppose this legislation and urge you to listen to those at these universities who are saying vote no!

02-12-2024

Molly Dahlberg []

I strongly disagree with the requirement for our state universities to review their diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and policies by this date. Universities already have many formal review processes in place to make sure all their departments are functioning well. This is just an attack on the employees, many of whom are queer and/or people of color, of these offices who are already overworked and underpaid. DEI offices do a great job of educating the community about differences and supporting students and employees who are underrepresented in academia. And as far as free speech goes, I can tell you that the campus in my town has very vocal student organizations on a variety of issues. However, the only students who seem to encounter issues when they peacefully protest are queer and trans students. In theory, this bill would support their rights and protect their right to speak freely and assemble, but in the current government I fear this is just an excuse to support conservative students who are upset when someone disagrees with them and silence dissenting voices.