Iowa Republican lawmakers U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra and state Rep. Taylor Collins have called for the firing of University of Iowa employees Drea Tinoco and Cory Lockwood. If these employees are fired, the university stands to lose a lot more than just funding. It, consequently, would set a horrible example and further cripple the UI’s creative and literary community.
The evidence against the employees consists of two videos captured through a hidden camera. The first video, uploaded to Fox News, shows Tinoco calling Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds “cuckoo bananas” for signing the bill in May to disband and dismantle the diversity, equity, and inclusion department, Senate File 2435.
The second video, uploaded to the conservative news site “Townhall,” is a thirty-second clip filled with cuts conveniently removing most of the context so the footage appears “damning” to viewers.
This Big Brother style of espionage is more than just a tactic of fearmongering by the GOP. By building a pyre of fear, they make it clear anyone attempting to do any diversity, equity, and inclusion work, or even discussing it, will be sent packing.
The torch to light that pyre is now in the university’s hands. Ultimately, the UI will choose the fate of the two employees.
First, we should consider what we stand to lose if we refuse to fight blatant suppression and fearmongering. What kind of example would firing the two employees set?
“This sets a precedent. It’s going to keep happening because they understand they got away with it this time,” Danika Jacobsen, a second-year student at the UI, said. “[They say] ‘Oh, let’s do it a little bit more severe next time.’ It keeps going like that until you don’t have it at all.”
Most at risk is the literary community. The UI has already fallen in the national rankings of top writing schools, from fifth to ninth. You don’t need to look far to see why.
The gutting of the International Writing Program, or IWP, comes to mind as a colossal loss to the literary community in Iowa City. The IWP has previously produced three Nobel Peace Prize recipients, including Mo Yan of China, Orhan Pamuk of Istanbul, and most recently in 2024, South Korean writer Han Kang.
The program, although still open, has been significantly reduced in size. Federal grants from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs were terminated, and as a result, the IWP lost nearly $1 million. Because of budget cuts, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and the Youth Writing Project have announced their closure.
It’s worth mentioning the damage to these programs for what they brought to the literary community. Out of everything they contributed, it is diversity that I am most concerned about losing.
Diversity is the blood of creativity. Good stories aren’t pulled out of thin air; more often than not, stories are shaped and inspired by the people and narratives around us. If we remove the people around us, what narratives are there to write?
The UI’s literary community is already stumbling from the loss of these writing programs. If we want to send it crashing to its knees, there’s no better way than by accepting the Republican party’s call to fire Tinoco and Lockwood. Because it won’t just be them.
If they truly want to remove any professor still doing “DEI work,” they’d have to sack the majority of the liberal arts department, which is obviously impractical, given the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has 710 faculty members. The college is also the largest of twelve at the UI, with nearly 15,000 undergraduate students.
It appears the Republican party will seek evidence to justify its terminations, however they can. We’re already using hidden cameras, what’s to stop some rogue from bugging classrooms or professors’ offices next?
Yes, more budget cuts might be coming if we don’t follow the GOP’s demands, but we’ll possibly be losing just as much — or more — if we see them go. So if we’re going down, I’d like to see us do it with our writing hand free, defending the values we claim make this community great.