Following the University of Iowa’s decision to no longer recognize its eight diversity councils on Feb. 17, former council members expressed heartbreak over the value they said these councils provided to the entire campus community.

Established to support faculty, staff, and students from historically underrepresented backgrounds — including women, veterans, LGBTQ+ individuals, and racial and ethnic minorities — the councils served as forums to engage in discussions and organize events.

For Lina-Maria Murillo, a UI professor and former member of the Council on the Status of Women and the Latinx Council, the removal of these groups represents a more profound loss: the erasure of vital spaces where like-minded students and professors could find community.

“I think [that’s] very purposeful,” Murillo said. “I think there’s a history to denying folks the ability to gather, especially folks who are like minded, who have similar community or cultural interests or concerns.”

As a result of the UI’s Latinx Council no longer being recognized, Murillo said the Latinx graduation ceremony it previously hosted will not be allowed to take place this year — a loss she said breaks her heart.

“It’s one opportunity we all get to see students — most of whom are first-generation Iowans whose parents are farm workers or meat packers in the state —and we get to see how proud their parents are when they graduate,” Murillo said, fighting back tears. “That’s gone. And so it’s just mean-spirited.”

She likened the elected officials who initiated anti-DEI laws to “online trolls,” who she described as enjoying the “petty cruelty” of eliminating any trace of DEI from public institutions.

“Our local state governments are passing laws to prohibit anything that even remotely smells of DEI. And the way that they are defining DEI is very broad and really ambiguous,” Murillo said. “Many universities are taking it upon themselves to also interpret DEI very broadly.”

While acknowledging the UI and other public institutions currently find themselves “between a rock and a hard place,” Murillo argued eliminating groups and classes that fall under the DEI umbrella is anti-democratic, as participation in them is entirely voluntary and based on interest.

“The people that have not been talked to and engaged on these things are the people whose lives these changes affect every day,” Murillo said. “Staff, faculty, and students have not at all been brought into these conversations. We have absolutely no say in how these policies are applied and how they’re constructed.”

Sikowis Nobiss, founder of the local nonprofit Great Plains Action Society and a member of UI’s former Native American Council, described the university’s decision to disband its diversity councils as heartbreaking — emphasizing the lasting impact DEI initiatives had on her as a UI student.

RELATED: Eight UI diversity councils no longer recognized as of Monday

“The [DEI] programs they have placed at the universities make a difference for students. They are very helpful,” Nobiss said. “I am an example. When I first came here, I didn’t know a single soul.”

Nobiss recalled one of the first things she did as a student to find community was visit the Native American Student Association. While the Native American Student Association and other culturally aligned student groups are not currently affected by anti-DEI legislation, Nobiss emphasized how having a space to connect with other Indigenous students has profoundly impacted her life to this day.

“The Native American Student Association changed everything for me,” Nobiss said. “I became the Chair of the organization for a couple of years, and I learned a lot of great things that helped me further advocate for Indigenous peoples here — to the point that I ended up starting my own nonprofit.”

Nobiss said she and her nonprofit organization have been pushing back against anti-DEI measures since 2021 when Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill banning critical race theory in Iowa schools, which Nobiss views as a precursor to the anti-DEI legislation now impacting public universities.

“We’ve been fighting the ban on DEI since before it happened,” Nobiss said.

Nobiss emphasized her view that DEI programs provide essential resources not only for students of color but also for disenfranchised white students and white women, making their elimination a widespread loss.

“I’m shocked that I don’t see more students on campus protesting,” Nobiss said.

Murillo echoed the power of student activism — calling students the UI’s most powerful stakeholders.

“They are relying on students’ complacency and apathy,” Murillo said of the UI regents. “Because the second [students] get organized, and the second [students] start showing up, that’s going to be a problem for them.”

Senate File 2435 mandated the elimination of diversity councils and Jeneane Beck, assistant vice president for UI’s external relations, explained the councils were initially organized under the university’s DEI office, which has since been restructured to comply with state law.

Beck also pointed to Section D of the law, which prohibits universities from promoting or implementing programs, training, or activities related to race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

“University attorneys reviewed the councils and determined they may also be considered a DEI office under the law and therefore non-compliant,” Beck wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan.