AMES, Iowa — Iowa State lawmakers passed the education appropriation bill in the usual timing last session, at the very end of the 100 days. This budget bill included provisions prohibiting public universities from having diversity, equity and inclusion offices on campus.

The bill, now signed into law, passed in a partisan manner in both chambers, with the DEI portion playing into the rationale for that vote. The law is set to take effect next summer and the board of regents will now have to comply with state law, which prohibits DEI offices on campus. The law also extends to training, activities, teaching or practicing of DEI policy, and this extension is what really has some students worried at Iowa State University.

“We won’t go back, we won’t go back,” chanted a group of a couple dozen ISU students and Ames community members while marching from the student union to the Parks Library on central campus.

The group formed only a couple of weeks ago when students had heard about these policies that will be taking effect.

“When we learned that, at the Board of Regents meeting in November, that’s where they decide how to interpret S.F. 2435 and how to apply it to Iowa State specifically, that was like the wake up call for everybody here that we needed to go out and do something about it,” said Erin O’Brien a junior at ISU.

ISU’s DEI Office closed in August of this year, and the students are concerned that other programs and resources will be wiped out when the board of regents decides on what falls under the law and what does not.

“The Center for LGBTQIA+ StudentSuccess, the Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity, and the Multicultural Student Affairs,” said Silvera Dudenhoefer, a junior at ISU. “We need places where we know that we are safe and that we can build our communities. We know that building community is so important on a college campus. Making connections is extremely important.”

The group is planning on more protests as the coalition grows, and they are hoping to possibly attend the next board of regents meeting in November when these issues will be discussed.

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