Two of Iowa's top education lawmakers are telling the state's university governing board that a biennial review of general education courses isn't enough — they want DEI content banned outright from every course students are required to take to earn a degree. Rep. Taylor Collins and Sen. Lynn Evans sent a letter to the Iowa Board of Regents requesting a policy that would bar DEI content and related ideological frameworks from both core curriculum and major-specific required courses.
Lawmakers Want a Hard Line, Not Just a Review
Collins chairs the Iowa House Committee on Higher Education and Evans chairs the Senate Committee on Education, giving the pair direct influence over how the Legislature might respond if the Regents decline to act. According to Iowa Capital Dispatch, their letter argues the board bears responsibility for protecting students' ability to complete their degrees without mandatory ideological instruction. As reported by kjan.com, the lawmakers sent a letter urging the board to adopt a clear, enforceable policy prohibiting DEI content in required coursework.
Their letter puts the demand in stark terms. “No student should be required, as a condition of earning a degree, to enroll in classes that treat identity-based outcomes as settled orthodoxy,” the lawmakers wrote, according to kjan.com. The legislators say they are prepared to help the board draft the new policy and work out how it would be implemented, per the Iowa Capital Dispatch's reporting.
A Conservative Media Video Set Off the Latest Round
The letter follows the publication of an edited video from Accuracy in Media, a conservative media outlet that records university officials and posts the footage online, appearing to show University of Iowa senior academic advisor of elementary education Carter Burks. Accuracy in Media posted the video on October 27, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch. In it, Burks reportedly described Iowa City as very forward-thinking within a conservative state and said there is room in the program for learning about African American culture, Native peoples and other wide-ranging history topics.
Burks is also shown saying the program believes in educating all students about what they need to know, while acknowledging that different professors interpret that mission differently, per the same account. He reportedly asked whether he was being recorded, and the person recording him denied it. Burks separately said staff had previously been fired for mentioning diversity and inclusion, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. University of Iowa assistant vice president for external relations Jeneane Beck said Burks remains employed by the university and is not on leave.
Regents Already Reviewing the Letter and Video
Iowa Board of Regents senior communications director Josh Lehman said the board is reviewing both the video and the lawmakers' letter, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. This isn't the board's first brush with complaints tied to recorded footage of university employees: a previous round of complaints about university employee recordings resulted in one complaint being dismissed and another proceeding to disciplinary action in February 2026, per the same outlet. Around that time, Regents official Robert Cramer instructed an investigation firm to audit all three state universities for compliance with state and federal DEI laws, and Lehman said that audit remains ongoing.
The request lands just months after the board approved its own, more limited response to similar pressure. In June, the Regents approved a policy requiring biennial reviews of undergraduate general education courses at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, flagging any with substantial DEI or critical race theory content. Per the Ames Tribune, the measure passed in a 5-3 vote on June 16, and staff reviews are set to begin during the 2026-27 academic year.
Review, Not a Ban — At Least for Now
Cramer has stressed that the June policy is narrower than what Collins and Evans are now asking for. “The Regents will not eliminate classes because of the policy, nor will it add required credits,” he said, according to the Ames Tribune, framing it instead as a way for the board to track what is actually being taught. “This (policy) is a way for the board to know what is going on in general education and what's required,” he added in the same report.
That review also arrived only after earlier, tougher proposals stalled. Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that legislation requiring similar reviews failed to pass during the 2026 session, and the Ames Tribune noted the Regents had twice delayed votes on a comparable course policy in 2025 while weighing feedback. During board debate, one member raised a separate concern: that reviewing the content of individual classes moves the board from governance to management, Iowa Capital Dispatch reported.
A June 2025 version of the proposal would have let students opt out of required major, minor or certificate courses carrying substantial DEI or CRT content, but the policy ultimately approved contains no opt-out provision, according to the Ames Tribune. The board's current approach also diverges from a 2025 Iowa House bill, which passed 63-34 and would have outright blocked regents institutions from requiring any coursework with DEI or CRT-related content, as reported by Iowa Public Radio. House Republicans that same day also passed a separate bill barring DEI spending by state agencies, cities, counties and school districts except where required by federal contract, per the same report.
Part of a Broader Pattern at Iowa's Universities
The new letter is the latest step in a yearslong push by the Iowa Legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds, who have enacted laws barring taxpayer funding for DEI initiatives that prioritize group identity over individual merit, and separate state laws that prohibit DEI offices and activities at public universities altogether. The Regents' own 2023 directives, which restructured central DEI offices and ordered a review of DEI-related general education categories, specify that employees, students, applicants and campus visitors cannot be required to submit a DEI statement or be evaluated on participation in DEI initiatives, with an exception for compliance or accreditation needs, according to the Board of Regents' directives. Those same directives state they are not meant to block programs required for legal compliance or accreditation.
The board has also tried to draw a line between restricting ideology and restricting instruction. In 2025, the Regents clarified that instructors may still teach course-related controversial topics as long as they avoid indoctrination and present multiple viewpoints, according to The Gazette, which reported that instruction should foster critical thinking rather than indoctrinate students toward one perspective. Even the scaled-back June policy carries a real administrative cost: Higher Ed Dive reported the course reviews are expected to require more than 1,000 hours of staff work, underscoring how much is already riding on a policy that Collins and Evans now say doesn't go far enough.
