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UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA CEDAR FALLS, IA THURSDAY, APRIL 5 VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
CEDAR FALLS, IA
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2025
VOLUME 121, ISSUE 24
DOUG SCHWAB NAMED NWCA
COACH OF THE YEAR
Words on the wall mean nothing, it’s in the actions. - DOUG SCHWAB
UNI Wrestling Head Coach, NWCA Coach of the Year
COURTESY/ALLYSON SCHWAB
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Iowa House lawmakers clash over legislation restricting DEI at public, private colleges BROOKLYN DRAISLEY
Iowa Capital Dispatch
CAMPUS LIFE
Staff writer Lily Munnik peels back the page on the Nook’s upcoming local author book fair. SEE PAGE 7
SPORTS UNI Women’s Basketball falls to the Florida Gators in the first round of the NIT. SEE PAGE 9
When debating the first of many pieces of legislation targeting diversity, equity and inclusion Tuesday in the Iowa House, Rep. Beth WesselKroeschell said she’s already heard from individuals and groups seeing the negative impacts of stripping away DEI at Iowa colleges and universities. An Iowa State University professor was asked to stop requiring students to watch a video on biochemist Percy Julian, an African American, Wessel-Kroeschell said. The teacher had used the story to get students thinking about how “societal ideas impact scientific progress,” the Ames Democrat said. “This bill and others that we will be discussing today take us 100 steps backwards,” Wessel-Kroeschell said. “The diversity, equity, inclusion ban has already gone too far.” Advocates of the legislation argued DEI programs were divisive. “A better name for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, in my opinion, would be adversity, inequity and exclusion, because that is what these programs do,” Rep. Steven Holt said.
COURTESY/ROBIN OPSAHL, IOWA CAPTIAL DISPATCH
Rep. Henry Stone, R-Forest City, spoke on legislation prohibiting funding for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Iowa, alongside prohibiting DEI efforts at community colleges and private colleges participating in the Iowa Tuition Grant during floor debate in the Iowa House March 18.
“Indoctrinating young people to see everything through the prism of race is incredibly destructive — creating adversity between people, inequity for those who do not fit the narrative and exclusion for those who do not agree.” Members of the Iowa House of Representatives passed a number of bills aimed at DEI Tuesday evening, including amended legislation that
would create a new center for intellectual freedom at the University of Iowa, as well as bills that would bar state entities, community colleges and private universities from maintaining DEI offices and positions and state university requirements for DEI-related education or participation in programming. House File 269 would prohibit public universities from
requiring or incentivizing education in DEI or critical race theory-related content for students as a prerequisite for earning a degree, with exceptions, and also bars employees from being required or incentivized to participate in similar activities or programs. The House passed an See LEGISLATION, page 3