Following directives from the Iowa Board of Regents, all three of Iowa’s public universities have begun to wipe their websites of all mentions of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This includes the complete removal of web pages such as those of the University of Iowa’s recently dissolved Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity, or AOD, and previous winners of the Diversity Catalyst Awards, both of which can now only be accessed through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
The UI has also made other web pages, such as the Latino Native American Cultural Center’s library guide, temporarily unavailable as the university reviews these web pages to see if they comply with anti-DEI directives from the Regents.
However, Iowa City and UI community members resist these directives by ensuring these web pages remain accessible to anyone who needs them through community archival projects.
One of these archival projects is the Orpheus Project, which was formed in a “rage-fueled five hours on a Tuesday morning,” as described by one of the members of the project, who asked to remain anonymous to minimize efforts that could be taken to stunt the success of the project.
The Orpheus Project has begun archiving and restoring DEI-related resources the UI has removed. Two of their completed projects include the restorations of the DAOD webpage and the Hubbard Scholar webpages.
The Orpheus Project works on requests sent to the group’s Instagram profile. When the group receives a notification a UI web page has been taken down, they work to immediately restore the webpage and make these resources available to the public again.
As Rick Miller, the treasurer of the Des Moines Pride Center who also works on the center’s archives, explained, archival work like this is integral to the survival of marginalized communities like the LGBTQ+ community.
“A group of people that doesn’t have a history are ignored or easily erased,” Miller said. “And because so often the power comes from those who control history and what is said, we need to have people that are gathering and keeping together information and materials about our history.”
Miller also discussed previous moments in history when archival work and documenting of marginalized groups were the target of erasure. One of these includes the first known LGBTQ archives: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s “Institute for Sexual Science.”
This archive oversaw large-scale studies on the LGBTQ+ community in Germany, performed gender affirming surgeries, and hosted a library that held thousands of books on same-sex relationships during the 1930s.
This institute and its archive were ultimately the target of the Nazi party and were looted then burned.
“It just shows you the importance and the vulnerabilities of keeping these kinds of things because there are people that want to erase this,” Miller said. “They want to make sure that we do not exist, and no one will ever find out about us.”
Adele Lozano, who worked for eight years in the UI’s Opportunity at Iowa office, spearheaded efforts to create a Latino and Native American alumni reunion, and from this reunion came the formation of the Latino-Native American Alumni Alliance, or LANA3, which is housed in Iowa’s Center for Advancement.
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For Lozano, this reunion and the formation of LANA3 were important in both ensuring alumni remain connected to the university and connecting alumni with current students who may need a guide during their time at the UI.
“It’s really important for them to know that these other folks before you, they went through this, here’s how they did it, and there’s really so many reasons for us to be proud of our legacy on this campus,” Lozano said. “It’s really important that we stand up and make sure that people know that we’re here, too, and here’s our legacy, and here’s how our legacy makes this campus that much better.”
In celebration of 50 years since the formation of the Latino Native American Cultural Center, LANA3, LNACC, and the Division of Student Life hosted the Alumni Alliance Reunion, whose page has also been taken down for review.
As a part of this three-day event, alumni were able to visit the LNACC Oral History Project for the UI Main Library’s Special Collections and Archives, which included two rooms full of archival material: newspaper clippings, literary magazines, photographs, and costumes from a dance troupe that previously existed.
“If we didn’t have the LNACC archives, then we would lose that history, first of all, but we also would make it impossible for future scholars, for students, to do research on Latino and Native American students and on the LNACC,” Lozano said. “It’s really important that it’s documented and that folks know that they were important and had value.”
Nancy “Rusty” Barceló, whose biograhy could previously be found on the Council on the Status of Women website, which has also been taken down for review, was one of the alumni who attended the LANA3 reunion and visited the archives, describing it as a moving and joyful experience to see.
Barceló was one of three students, including Tony Zavala and Ruth Pushetonequa, who worked to increase Latino enrollment at the UI and founded what is now known as the LNACC. The effort of these students to increase diversity and equity at the university level became models across the university and benefited all students, Barceló said.
“People don’t think about the contributions that diversity has made to universities, across the country and specifically in Iowa, that helped to transform the institution and to provide services to all students,” Barceló said. “I don’t think we did a good job talking about our contributions nor where we acknowledged. So, yes, it pains me, quite frankly, to know these programs are being dismantled.”
And while it can be disheartening to see all of these changes and the dismantling of years of effort made by students and people like Barceló, for the Orpheus Project, archival work is also essential in reminding students, faculty, and staff of the power they hold.
“We are the ones holding the power in this scenario, and not just the Orpheus Project,” the project’s member said. “When I say ‘we,’ I refer to all the student activists, everybody here, we have the power. We are the tools that the Board of Regents tries to use to accomplish their goals, and if we do not cooperate, there is nothing they can do.”