Chuy Renteria, of West Liberty, quit his job at the University of Iowa’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the summer of 2023 because they could “see the writing on the wall.”

Now the division has been first renamed and then shut down, the proof of its existence being scrubbed from university websites.

Iowa lawmakers banned DEI programs in 2024, the UI closed its DEI offices — which had been renamed the Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity in an effort to comply with the state law — in 2025. Now, Iowa lawmakers are considering a proposal that would ban the initiatives in private universities that receive state dollars, local governments, state government, and community colleges.

Universities all across the country, like the UI, have DEI divisions that aim to help students who have not traditionally been given access to higher education. Some local governments have DEI divisions to help ensure they are adequately serving their diverse communities. These initiatives have made these institutions the target of Republican lawmakers in recent years.

This bill isn’t the legislature’s first bill aiming its crosshairs at DEI in higher education. In 2024, Iowa House Republicans amended the education appropriations package at the end of the session to include bans on DEI in Iowa’s regent universities.  The legislation codified board policy to eliminate DEI programs that aren’t required by law or for accreditation.

Since then, all three regent universities have eliminated their DEI offices, with the UI first renaming and restructuring the office, and then closing the office for good in March.

Now, the university is working to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order barring federal funding for DEI. To do so, they’ve been scrubbing their website of mentions of diversity and scanning grants and contracts for mentions of diversity.

Renteria was the assistant director of Inclusive Education and Strategic Initiatives in the division, which offered voluntary diversity training, the same ones that have drawn the ire of Republican lawmakers who oppose DEI practices.

Renteria worked for the UI’s DEI office until the summer of 2023, when he quit in the middle of a meeting. Renteria said he “saw the writing on the wall” after a meeting with the leadership team where it was clear the UI would no longer offer courses about transgender identities.

He said the staff in the division knew something was coming; he could sense the political winds were shifting and that their services were at risk.

Renteria said the department had done lots of work to ensure no one felt like they were being forced to take DEI training. The training was optional, and they only gave presentations when they were invited by the department or student group holding the presentation.

They gave presentations on the fundamentals of DEI and what the terms mean, and how they apply to more than race. Renteria said it can apply to all sorts of characteristics, like age and even the number of siblings someone has.

But that did not matter, Renteria said, his department was the subject of conservative lawmakers’ scrutiny.

“We were trying to be very ginger and moving the goalposts,” Renteria said. “And they moved the goalposts again, and they just finally pulled the trigger.”

How DEI came to be a top issue

DEI programs only came to be within the last few decades as an extension of affirmative action, UI political science professor Tim Hagle said.

It came about to further affirmative action policies in universities and outreach to the communities that were given access to higher education by affirmative action, he said.

Lina-Maria Murillo, an expert in gender and minority studies from Iowa City , said the programs came from the end of segregationist policies in the 1950s, which created the Civil Rights Movement and calls for affirmative action, because students of color were denied the right to access these institutions before.

RELATED: UI to close Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity on March 27

“[Segregation] created an uneven playing field such that certain people were not able to have the same opportunities,” Murillo said. “As racialized people, we’re not able to have the same opportunities as other folks.”

Now, DEI has become a key talking point for conservatives who think the practices are unfair, Hagle said.

“It eventually became a winning issue for them, and then something that they saw is that we need to stop this and keep governments from doing it,” Hagle said. “Because to a certain extent, you’re thinking about the government that it should be fair to everybody, regardless of your race or ethnicity or even your ideological orientation.”

In recent years, Republicans in Iowa and nationwide have attempted to make reforms to the country’s higher education system.

U.S. House Republicans introduced a bill last year that would have made significant reforms to student loans, Pell Grants, and financing for universities dependent on federal aid.

Trump and Republicans in the House and Senate have vowed to root out DEI programs in colleges, with Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, vowing to work with lawmakers to get rid of these initiatives. Trump has not only targeted DEI in higher education, but also in the federal government and any programs funded with federal dollars.

DEI programs offer support

Jodi Linley, an expert in DEI programs in higher education from Iowa City , said DEI programs offer students a view of cultures other than themselves to help them create understanding and prepare them for a diverse workforce.

“Research has shown that interacting with peers in college who are different from oneself and taking diversity courses have long-term benefits,” Linley said in an email to The Daily Iowan.

These can foster skills like civic engagement, leadership skills, volunteering, and reduce bias, Linley said, especially for white students.

The experiences students have with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are designed to prepare them to live and work in a global society.

“Employers have long indicated that they value degrees from colleges that expose students to a wide range of viewpoints,” Linley said.

Linley said for students of color and LGBTQ+ students, sharing common experiences with identity-based conflict, hostility, and marginalization has impacted their learning and development at university. Linley said this helps create a sense of community.

“Campus initiatives that are designed to foster equity, inclusion, and success among minoritized students result in outcomes such as feeling a sense of belonging and community, developing an authentic sense of self, and gaining support from peers, faculty, and staff, all of which are related to persistence,” Linley said.

Lawmakers are targeting DEI programs throughout the U.S. whose main goal is to offer support to marginalized populations in their communities. Linley said, They help create a sense of belonging for students who don’t fit in with the primarily white populations and help retain those students.

“It provides spaces of community connection for, in particular, students of color and other folks who might feel otherwise like part of a minority on our campus, so that they could come together and find spaces of collectivity and connection,” Murillo said.

Republican-controlled states across the U.S. have also looked to shutter DEI programs in higher education, mostly focusing on public education.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 Republican-led states have signed anti-DEI legislation into law, and 86 bills have been introduced, including in Congress, to eliminate DEI programs.

This year, Iowa Republicans introduced a handful of bills focused at rooting out DEI programs in Iowa.

Iowa lawmakers push for anti-DEI legislation

Emboldened by Trump’s presidency and focus on the issue, Iowa Republicans have introduced a handful of legislative initiatives focused on banning DEI programs in Iowa.

Only one anti-DEI bill remains alive and available for consideration by lawmakers this session after a series of legislative deadlines killed other bills.

The bill, House File 856, would prohibit DEI offices and programs in state and local governments, public universities, community colleges, and private universities that receive Iowa Tuition Grant dollars.

The bill has passed the Iowa House, along party lines, and awaits a vote in the Iowa Senate which has a companion bill for the legislation. As lawmakers barrel towards the end of the session, it is unclear if the bill will get the support to cross the finish line.

Iowa Rep. Henry Stone, R-Forest City, managed the bill on the House floor and served on the committee that drafted the legislation. He said as an Asian American, he understands dealing with prejudice and racism, but he said the state needs to go back to “treating people by the content of their character.”

“DEI is destroying the fabric of our society.  It has created more divisiveness, animosity, and resentment between people,” Stone wrote in an email to the DI. “DEI training programs emphasizing systemic racism or privilege go on to foster division by putting everyone into groups as oppressors or oppressed. And that is simply not true. We need to get away from DEI and get back to merit, excellence, and intelligence.”

Iowa Rep. Rob Johnson, D-Des Moines, was one of the many House Democrats who spoke against the bill during a long debate on March 18. Johnson said in an interview with the DI that DEI programs aim to give people opportunities to succeed.

“It is about being able to put everybody at the table, give everybody equal access — it’s an opportunity for everyone,” Johnson said. “And when we say we are against that, to me, that is not what America is about. That’s not what Iowa is about.”

Iowa Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, who chairs the Iowa House’s Black Caucus, said the anti-DEI legislation has created an unwelcoming environment in Iowa as the state is looking to grow its workforce to support its economy.

“Diversity, equity, inclusion looks at all of the ways that we are different, and it gives us, as a country and as a state, a way to prosper, a way to coexist across diversity in its broadest form,” Wilburn said. “Anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion bills create an atmosphere of unwelcomeness for folks across all the protected classes.”

Renteria said the rise of DEI legislation since they left the UI’s DEI division has been unsurprising given the headwinds he could sense while at the department.

Now, Renteria said, they are erasing history by scrubbing the web of these programs.

“We’re pretending like these things didn’t happen,” Renteria said. “We’re scrubbing all these descriptions of these units, and what they did from the internet to make it harder. And while doing that, I believe that we’re doing, we’re doing a lot of damage that’s going to take a long, long time to reverse.”