The University of Northern Iowa’s faculty labor union issued a press release this week announcing its opposition to several bills approved the Iowa House. Those bills are:
- HF 269 – Freedom from Indoctrination Act
- HF 295 – Accreditation Autonomy Act
- HF 401 – Core Curriculum Act
HF269
The faculty union claims the bills undermine critical inquiry, free speech and student choice. HF 269 ensures that no student is forced to take courses promoting ideological activism, such as critical race theory or diversity, equity, and inclusion as a condition of obtaining a degree, and protecting the academic freedom of faculty from mandatory infusions of DEI-related course content. Simply, it ensures that universities are focused on academics not ideology. It reduces institutional focus on DEI and increases the focus on academics. It eliminates mandatory DEI coursework in public higher education, ensuring students aren’t compelled to engage with these topics academically.
HF 295
Before the bill, only the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) could accredit Iowa’s universities. HLC is deeply committed to the principles of diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion (DEI). This commitment is articulated in HLC’s mission and vision statements, and it is central to HLC’s strategic plan and priorities as an organization. Iowa state law and Executive Orders issued by President Trump are successfully removing DEI from higher education in Iowa. As nearly everyone realizes by now, DEI are inherently racist because it prioritizes race as the central lens through which all societal interactions and structures are judged, effectively reducing individuals to their race rather than their merits or character.
DEI favors certain racial groups over others in hiring, promotions, or resource allocation to achieve “equity” (equal outcomes) rather than equality (equal opportunity). DEI allows its adherents to use this new form of racial bias to pursue their goals.
HF401
HF 401 establishes undergraduate general education requirements across Iowa’s regent universities, requiring specific credit hours in English, Mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, Western heritage, and American heritage. Also, the bill mandates that core curriculum courses do not distort historical events or promote identity politics.
Again, academics not ideology. Knowledge not activism. Analysis not advocacy.
Unfortunately, universities have drifted so far off course, we are now in a spot where mandating the core curriculum is necessary to force universities back to their core mission of truth-seeking. A university education is supposed to broaden knowledge and expose students to new ideas, not indoctrinate them into a specific left-wing worldview based on progressive morals and activist political training.
Curricula, especially in the humanities and social sciences, have become platforms for pushing social justice, identity politics, and political agendas rather than fostering objective inquiry or imparting foundational knowledge.
