Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered Iowa’s three Board of Regent-controlled universities review their antisemitism policies and to comply with an investigation into their compliance with federal protections for Jewish students on Monday.
The order came from Reynolds as an executive order, her 13th as governor, and orders the regent universities to review their current policies regarding events of antisemitism or antisemitic speech on campus. The order also directs the regent universities to review, and make any required changes, to their response to any instances of antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 Israelis.
The attack sparked the Israel-Hamas war which has wagered on since Oct. 2023. More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war after Israel retaliated for the Oct. 7 attack and decimated most of the Gaza strip.
The war heightened political tensions in the U.S. —especially on college campuses — including the University of Iowa, which saw multiple pro-Palestinian protests that called for the UI to divest from companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war.
Campuses across the country erupted in protest, angry at the U.S. support for the war, and called on the U.S. government to do more to stop Israel’s military operations in Gaza. On Columbia University’s campus those protests erupted into an encampment that deepened political tensions nationwide.
In a statement Monday, Reynolds reaffirmed Iowa’s support for Israel and the Jewish community and condemned “any form of threat, harassment, intimidation, hate speech, or other action that endangers the Jewish community or violates state or federal law.”
“Since the October 7th attacks, we’ve seen an increase in antisemitism across the U.S., including on college campuses,” Reynolds said in a news release Monday. “While many of Iowa’s colleges and universities have condemned such activity, we want to be clear that antisemitism has no place in Iowa.”
The order also requires that regent universities comply in an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights into their compliance with the universities’ obligations to protect Jewish students under federal civil rights law.