For the second time, the Iowa Board of Regents has delayed a vote on a new DEI and CRT course policy, citing a need to further review “feedback.”
The proposal that appeared before the Regents at its June meeting would allow a student to opt out of “required” courses in their major, minor, or certificate that have “substantial content that conveys diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or Critical Race Theory (CRT),” unless the Regents approve it as an exception. The policy restricts professors from “presenting contested, controversial ideas as settled fact.” If passed, it would apply to students at Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI).
Regents draft new policy ahead of June meeting
The Regents initially planned to vote on the policy on June 12, but ultimately tabled action for their July 30 meeting. The vote was delayed a little more than a week before the July meeting, though the board did not specify when they will address the issue again.
The decision was made after receiving feedback from a wide variety of constituents and “numerous thoughtful discussions,” according to a statement from the Regents on Tuesday, July 22.
“This is an important issue, and we have heard people’s concerns,” the Regents’ statement said. “We will continue reviewing the feedback, and the Board will identify a future meeting to consider this issue.”
Proposed CRT, DEI course policy met with vocal pushback
Iowa State’s faculty senate and UNI’s faculty union shared concerns ahead of the June Regents meeting that the policy infringes on student freedom of expression. Several Iowa residents have sent messages to the board, including Senator Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, who asked the Regents to delay a vote until the new semester starts in the fall.
The senator wrote a letter to the Regents on June 26, saying the proposal seeks to exclude certain topics rather than improving how those topics are presented, which would create problems.
“Sex and race discrimination have wide implications and effects in all the social sciences and in history and in professions such as law and medicine,” Quirmbach said in his letter. “It seems that in these fields exceptions allowing the proposed topics would be so frequently justified as to make the whole bureaucratic exercise fruitless.”
How do the Iowa Board of Regents define DEI and CRT?
The Regents’ new policy would definie diveristy, equity and inclusion as instruction that “conveys” several specific concepts “as primary principles,” such as: unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice, heteronormativity, gender theory, racial privilege or sexual privilege.
The proposal defines Critical Race Theory as “an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society and is embedded in laws, policies and institutions.”
Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Iowa Board of Regents delay vote on new DEI, CRT policy, citing ‘substantial’ feedback
Reporting by Celia Brocker, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
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