Iowa Slashes DEI Initiatives at State Universities, Bars Forcing Students to Disclose Pronouns

The Iowa Board of Regents has voted to take an axe to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at state universities, scaling back or eliminating the controversial initiatives that many conservatives have panned as discriminatory or even neo-Marxist. The nine-member board voted on Nov. 16 at a meeting in Cedar Falls, Iowa, to adopt a series of 10 recommendations (with one amendment) targeting DEI programs. While the adopted recommendations don’t prohibit any DEI initiatives that would impede the schools’ accreditation or compliance with existing rules, they go a long way toward dismantling them. The recommendations were put forward by a DEI study group that was formed in June when Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, signed into law Senate File 560....