Iowa House Republicans promised a broad and wide-eyed review of Iowa’s higher education system at the beginning of the legislative session in January, however, some of their biggest reforms failed to survive the legislative session. 

Iowa lawmakers endeavored to review and reform Iowa’s higher education system, and the Iowa House made a committee explicitly for that purpose. 

The House Higher Education Committee, chaired by Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, was tasked with this review of Iowa’s higher education and started the session with a laundry list of reforms they wished to levy against the state’s three public universities, community colleges, and private universities. 

Of the 14 bills proposed by Collins, only four were passed by both chambers, with 10 killed by legislative deadlines. Many of the proposals lived on by amending other bills or by the Iowa Board of Regents adopting them as policies at their April board meeting. 

Despite a large number of bills being funneled by legislative deadlines, lawmakers made some significant reforms to higher education in Iowa through legislation and through pressure on the Iowa Board of Regents. 

DEI Reforms combined into one bill 

Iowa Senate Republicans approved a bill that would ban diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in Iowa’s community college’s and across government entities in Iowa. 

The bill, House File 856, passed the Senate 34-16 last Friday in a party line vote, with Republicans voting for the bill. The amended bill passed the Iowa House on Tuesday. 

DEI was a big target of Iowa lawmakers this session who started with a handful of anti-DEI bills that banned the practices in a number of settings, but the bills were combined into one by the House and is now on the way to the governor’s desk for her approval. 

The bills come as President Donald Trump’s Administration has targeted the practice by cancelling federal grants and spending related to DEI, and purging the federal government of the practice. 

The Iowa legislature started their anti-DEI streak last year when they approved a ban on DEI in Iowa’s regent universities as part of the education budget bill. 

Critics of the bill argue that the practices support marginalized communities and that they benefit everyone, not just racial minorities. 

They also argue that local government programs are designed to reach out to the diverse communities that local governments serve. 

School of Intellectual Freedom, accreditation bill passed by lawmakers 

One of the largest reforms to regent universities this session is a bill to create a Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa. It currently awaits the governor’s signature. 

The bill, House File 437, would create a new center that would teach classes and do research on the “historical ideas, tradition, and texts that have shaped the American constitutional order and society.”

The bill would also require the center to offer university-wide programming on free speech and civil discourse.

The bill is one of the largest reforms that passed the legislature pertaining to regent universities. Lawmakers also passed a bill that would allow regent universities to sue their accreditors if they lose accreditation status because they are complying with state laws. 

The bill, House File 295, would allow the universities to bring suit themselves or ask the Iowa attorney general to bring suit against the accrediting body. 

Many accrediting bodies require certain DEI programs within universities to receive their accreditation. Previous legislative efforts to ban DEI carved out exceptions for requirements for accreditation purposes. 

If a college loses accreditations, it could impact students’ financial aid and change if their degree is officially recognized by employers or licensing boards.

The bill comes as Trump signed an executive order to reform the university accreditation system, including directing the Secretary of Education to revoke accreditation approval for organizations with DEI requirements. 

 A number of proposals never made it out of the committee: 

• House File 269: A bill banning critical race theory and teaching related to DEI at regent universities. 
• House File 402: A bill requiring undergraduate students at regent universities to complete a course on American history and civil government to graduate. 
• House File 577: A bill waiving tuition for undergraduate students at regent universities who receive the maximum score on the ACT or SAT. 
• House File 401: A bill changing general education requirements at regents universities. 

Regents Adopt tuition cap at April meeting  

Many of the reforms pushed by Iowa House Republicans ended up being adopted by the Iowa Board of Regents as policy during their April meeting, as the regents worked with lawmakers to make the proposed reforms reality. 

At the April meeting, the regents adopted a reform to the academic affairs policy manual that required the regent universities to make syllabi information available online for most classes. The revision mimics provisions of the bill House File 270 that was killed by legislative deadlines. 

They also adopted a change to the financial policy manual that limited tuition increases to inflation for resident undergraduate students. The bill mimics provisions in the original form of House File 440, which the governor has signed into law, that would have capped tuition increases at 3 percent year over year. 

House File 440 now requires regent universities to approve tuition increases before April 30, when previously regent universities tuition increases were approved in the summer. The bill also requires the regents to study the possibility of implementing a policy where tuition and fees stay the same during all 4 years of a student’s undergraduate education at a regent university. 

The regents also adopted budgetary reporting requirements for financial sources that are already required by federal law to be made available online.