Iowa politicians should not control universities

The Gazette’s Vanessa Miller chronicled a list of higher education legislation that’s already been filed by majority Republicans during the opening days of the 2026 session.

Reading about the bills, we’re left wondering when the Legislature will take direct control of Iowa’s three state universities. It seems that’s where we’re headed if these proposals become law.

One bill would make significant changes to university governance, shortening the terms of members of the Board of Regents, adding non-voting lawmakers to the panel, and depriving the board’s only student member of the right to vote.

In 2030, the bill would give the Legislature the power to reverse any spending approved by regents through a legislative resolution terminating any individual or ongoing expenditure.

Other bills would force Iowa’s university to sign President Donald Trump’s higher ed compact and bar any course from including Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or critical race content.

“These institutions don’t belong to the faculty. They don't belong to the administrators. They belong to the people of Iowa. They are state universities; we chartered them, and we appropriate over half a billion dollars to them,” said Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, and chair of the House Higher Education Committee, earlier this month.

“And so, I don't think it's legislative overreach — I don't think it's asking too much, either — to require just one course in American government (or) one course in American history.”

It clearly is a legislative overreach. Republicans’ efforts to exert political control over the universities have already gone too far without these latest bills. Whatever fair points conservatives made about liberal speech restrictions have been buried by Republican efforts to curtail campus speech they disagree with, undermine academic freedom and replace academically rigorous history with whitewashed mythology.

As for the university’s belonging to the people of Iowa, we are no longer pulling our weight.

State funding accounts for only about 33% of the university's operating budgets, while tuition and fees account for roughly 60%, or more than $1 billion. State funding accounted for a larger share of budgets than tuition. Since then, state aid has declined and tuition has grown sharply. The gap between state aid and tuition has grown while Republicans have controlled the Statehouse.

So, it seems the universities ought to belong to the students. But if Republicans get their way, students won’t even get a vote on the board of regents.

Students want to both learn and learn how to think critically. They don’t want any political bubble wrap to keep them comfortably uninformed. And they don’t want politicians to decide what they can learn. Listen to them, lawmakers.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com