On February 27, the Iowa Board of Regents confirmed the University of Iowa would be closing three culture and identity-based Living, Learning Communities, or LLCs, offered to students living on campus, for the 2025-26 school year. LLCs are portions of dormitories for student applicants to live in cultural clusters. Those impacted at the UI include communities for Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ students.
Since entering office, President Donald Trump has signed 76 executive orders into law, including several outlawing federal DEI offices and diversity-related positions. The orders claim applicability as official terms for government contractors and grant recipients, including universities, with the withdrawal of funding the threat at stake.
The vague nature of the policies for institutions reliant on federal funds is leading many to eliminate any affiliation with any entity or practice that could trigger said financial withdrawal. These policies serve as an ultimatum and threat: Submit or suspend operations.
The public response has included lawsuits against the Department of Education by universities, educators, and academic unions questioning whether the president has the authority to make these moves at all. The funding for most of the departments and organizations under threat have already had their budgets allocated by Congress. Ending them would require congressional approval, which the president has not requested.
Prior to the orders, the UI was already in the midst of changing policy in response to both the previous statewide ban on DEI and the reversal of affirmative action in 2023. Previous measures included closing the university’s DEI office, altering criteria for millions of dollars of scholarships for minority students, and the national elimination of race consideration in admissions.
Having already significantly trimmed DEI practices in the past two years, the loss of remaining resources, largely social and cultural spaces, will have a profound impact on university life for minority students. Socialization is an integral part of the student experience, and as a predominantly white institution, most student activities and communities are overwhelmingly dominated by white populations.
The loss of places for cultural exchange means less opportunity for people of minorities to find others with a common background or meet non-white students in general. Suppression of small-but-vital campus communities like these is reducing the ability of minorities to socialize with the same level of comfort and fluidity as their culturally dominant counterparts.
Last month, UI graduate student and teaching assistant, or TA, Molly Higgins was informed by a faculty member in the economics department that staff could no longer attend or promote gatherings for her social group, Women in Economics. She began the club last October to foster mentorship relations between women in the student body and faculty, as economics is currently the most male-dominated area of study. The club met monthly for drinks, snacks, and conversation.
“When I was an undergraduate in the economics department, I was often feeling very insecure and left out — like I wasn’t enough — because of my gender,” she said.
As a TA, Higgins noticed the lack of participation from her especially bright female students and wanted to provide a space that would build confidence in their belonging.
She has said since being informed of the changes, “I guess I’m just disappointed. I want to reiterate that we didn’t get any funding from the department or even the university itself.”
“This is purely about political associations and the appearance of ideology, so personally, I find that really disappointing.”
The majority of advertising for this group came from in-class and email promotions, which are also no longer allowed by the department.
Student life under these conditions can only thrive to their full potential in official, university-funded student organizations.
Greek life prominently demonstrates the level of inequality in even some of the most concretely established social groups on campus. Of the more than 40 Greek organizations at the UI, only nine expressly encourage multiculturalism or appeal to specific identities. And of the 25 Chapter houses in Iowa City, none belong to any culture or identity-based Greeks. This baseline disparity of resources makes accessibility to small, student-led groups on campus all the more influential and important.
The fear present with the label of DEI minimizes the opportunity for multicultural exchange. Without maintenance, these communities will eventually dwindle and assimilate into the broader, dominant and conventional society, fundamentally altering how students can bond.
Eliminating access to cultural groups stigmatizes claiming any identity different from the dominant crowd. College campuses are enriching because they represent the human diaspora. Disrupting how students are able to convene is forceful assimilation, not unity.
As the most influential entity affected by these new policies, it is important to ask in what ways will the university preserve the campus experience it paved the way for just a few years ago?