UI cuts 2 programs a year after cultural analysis school was denied

The University of Iowa is shuttering a pair of longstanding academic programs and several majors due to low interest, a year after the school was told it couldn’t create a new department to consolidate some of the programs on the cutting block.

Citing declining enrollment and concern over long-term sustainability, the University of Iowa was approved by the Iowa Board of Regents on April 23 to shutter a pair of departments within the Liberal Arts college − African American studies, as well as the gender, women’s, and sexuality studies department. The university said the master’s program in African American World Studies was terminated because no students had enrolled in the program in the past 5 years.

The UI is also eliminating bachelor’s degrees in applied physics and a few classical languages, Italian and Russian.

The decision to cut the programs, according to the UI, stems from the board’s 2025 workforce alignment report, which mandates reviews of undergraduate programs with fewer than 25 students and graduate programs with fewer than 10 students, “to ensure they align with student demand and workforce needs.”

Eliminating the African American studies and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies departments will generate “modest cost savings,” according to board documents.

Tanya Uden-Holman, UI associate provost for undergraduate education and dean of the University College, told the Regents that faculty and staff in both African American studies and Gender, Women’s and Sexuality studies have duties in other areas of the UI where they will take on full-time roles. No faculty will be laid off from either department, nor in any of the other majors.

Students currently enrolled in the canceled programs will be able to complete their degrees, though future students will not be allowed to enroll.

Iowa law restricts DEI programs at Iowa’s public universities

Iowa Code Chapter 261J, which went live on July 1, imposes new diversity, equity, and inclusion restrictions at all three of Iowa’s public universities.

Senate File 243, the basis of the new code, prohibits the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, and Iowa State from maintaining or funding DEI offices and from creating new ones. The law also states that the three universities cannot hire anyone to conduct the duties of a DEI office or require anyone to submit a DEI statement.

The three universities have collectively redirected more than $2.1 million from diversity, equity, and inclusion roles and offices in response to the new law.

UI’s pitch for a School of Social and Cultural Analysis denied

The  University of Iowa tried to consolidate gender, women’s, and sexuality studies along with African American Studies, Jewish Studies, Latina/o/x Studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies into the School of Social and Cultural Analysis in 2024. The new school was denied by the Regents in early 2025, citing “limited efficiencies.”

The board asked the UI to pursue ”other solutions that lead to greater efficiency and serve a large number of students.”

Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the Regents in response to the proposed School of Social and Cultural Analysis, saying it would consolidate “ideologically driven programs” rather than eliminate them.

“Iowans expect our institutions of higher education to be focused on providing for the workforce needs of the state, not programs that are focused on peddling ideological agendas,” the lawmakers said in their letter.

After the new school was denied, the UI pledged to keep the gender, women’s, and sexuality studies and African American Studies programs alive, though the university ultimately shuttered them 14 months later.

African American Studies, Gender, Women’s and Sexuality depts share 108-year history

The UI’s 56-year-old department of African American Studies was established in the fall of 1970, two years after former University of Iowa President Howard Bowen asked to create a $50,000 Martin Luther King, Jr. scholarship to recruit Black students to the school. The African-American World Studies master’s program was established several years later in the 1980s.

The African American Studies department has 21 faculty members.

The 52-year-old Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies department was a pioneering program when it was first founded in 1974. In 2016, the department expanded to include a social justice minor. The American Studies program, founded in 1947, gained department status in 2000. The two departments have 30 faculty members − 21 in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, and nine in American Studies, along with other graduate student teachers and staff.

Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa begins

Iowa lawmakers in early 2025, shortly after the University of Iowa announced its plan for the School of Social and Cultural Analysis, filed a legislative bill in the Iowa House to establish the Center for Intellectual Freedom within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The bill, filed by Representative Collins, created an “independent academic unit” that launched in March with two courses. The Board of Regents manages the center’s curriculum, faculty, budget, and admissions, functioning as a separate entity from the University of Iowa.

The Center for Intellectual Freedom is the first civics-focused program in Iowa mandated by legislative action. It is meant to encourage a wider range of perspectives on what lawmakers argue are overwhelmingly liberal campuses.

Jessica Rish is an entertainment, dining and education reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. She can be reached at JRish@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @rishjessica_

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: UI cuts 2 programs a year after cultural analysis school was denied

Reporting by Jessica Rish, Iowa City Press-Citizen / Iowa City Press-Citizen

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