DES MOINES, Iowa — As higher education institutions have been cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, Drake University has been expanding its efforts.

Drake University President Marty Martin said that Drake is committed to the importance of diversity for its mission.

The private university made history this academic school year with the most diverse undergraduate class in its 143 years.

“If you just think about the educational experience itself, it benefits greatly from having a wide array of persons in a classroom sharing different viewpoints that are based upon the experience that they have coming from the communities that they come from. And for Drake, that means recruiting nationally, and we want to ensure that the students that we’re recruiting feel welcomed here, and many of them come with diverse backgrounds,” said Martin.

This comes after the school appointed Dr. Terrance Pendleton as the Associate Provost for Campus Equity and Inclusion last June. He has served as an Associate Professor of Mathematics since 2016.

The Des Moines school also launched a new program called Bulldogs Belong: Resilient and Thriving, which has a goal of enhancing campus inclusivity.

Drake University’s efforts in embracing diversity have led the school to receive the 2024 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from Insight into Diversity magazine. Drake was among 113 schools from across the country that were recognized and is the only Iowa school chosen.

“Each institution has to make its own choices about how it’s going to address and approach this issue. I hope that we’ve been really clear that we see diversity as a great strength at Drake University and we’re going to remain committed to that,” said Martin.

Drake’s expansion of DEI programs comes at a time when other institutions have been eliminating their own.

As a result of a law passed last session that banned state universities from maintaining a DEI office, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa have all eliminated their DEI departments.

This session, a bill that would bar public entities and private educational institutions from opening, funding, or maintaining a DEI office was amended on Monday by the Iowa Senate Education Committee to remove “private educational institutions” from the legislation.