A new semester and a new Legislature
Legislators in Des Moines have their eyes set on Iowa campuses after a string of high-profile scandals.
The University of Iowa is officially back in business for the spring semester, and at the same time, the Iowa Legislature has reconvened in Des Moines with a larger, invigorated Republican majority.
Republicans are pushing full-steam ahead on their ambitious agenda. On election night, Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver said the party’s outsized success gave them a governing mandate, and they’re taking that in stride.
Some lawmakers have especially set their crosshairs on higher education. A string of scandals this year has shaken Republicans with fears that free speech is threatened on college campuses — a pro-life group was barred from registering at UNI; an ISU professor’s syllabus prohibited taking positions against gay marriage, abortion, and Black Lives Matter; and here at the UI, an email thread in the College of Dentistry blew up into a free speech war.
The solution proposed is to get rid of tenure, the argument being that tenure makes professors untouchable and apt to discriminate against conservative students. Personally, I don’t see how that connection has been very clearly established, especially since in two of the cases — at the UI and at UNI — no tenured faculty were directly involved at all.
Democrats and University leadership are not fans of the proposal. Mary Mascher, an Iowa City representative, said axing tenure would have “a chilling effect” on higher education in Iowa, and UI President Bruce Harreld said it would politicize research and good faculty would leave the state.
On the topic of research, a separate bill would require institutions to be cleared by the Legislature before spending any non-state money, including federal funding and private donations. Proponents call it sound fiscal policy, but opponents call it cumbersome at best. It could also open research up to political tinkering — whichever party is in the majority could knock down research that they find unnecessary or politically distasteful.
Another bill would prohibit Iowa universities from requiring mask-wearing and social distancing off campus. In August, the UI’s director of student accountability noted that students could be punished for not following social distancing off campus “where the university has a clear and distinct interest.” I never heard of a student being punished under this rule, but that wouldn’t be an option under this proposal.
At the UI
In the first two weeks of the semester, the UI is removing “interim” from a lot of titles. The UI chose to forego a search for a new diversity director and name the interim director, Liz Tovar, to be the executive officer for diversity, equity, and inclusion, now reporting directly to the president. Kevin Kregel, who has been the interim provost since Monste Fuentes left the position for a stint as a special assistant to the presidnt, was also named permanently to the provost role Wednesday. They’ll be paid $250,000 and $493,000 a year, respectively.
It’s not clear how many in-person classes are being offered, if it’s as much as last semester, or if the university is trying to push back to some sense of normalcy during a far-from-normal semester. What we do know: Next year, the university will attempt to hold any class with less than 150 people in person. That would be a huge change from our current operation, and it might be difficult if vaccine rollout takes as long as it seems to be taking.
On a more hopeful note, UI hospitals had their first vaccine clinic for the general population over 65 on Wednesday, vaccinating nearly 1,000 people on the first day. “I’m happy, the sooner you get the shot the better,” Carter Kudrle, an 80-year old from North Liberty told me. “Because that’s the only way we’re going to get out of this mess.”
The university held its first town hall to discuss its possible plans to “reimagine campus safety" on Wednesday. The committee was born out of protests this summer that left the Old Capitol covered in spray paint and fences lining the Pentacrest for weeks. The meeting was meant to gauge campus opinion, and suggested three basic models of campus safety, all with varying levels of officer involvement. It will be interesting to see if any major changes come to UIPD from this process.
In Washington
Although it almost feels irrelevant and far removed at this point, the second trial of Donald Trump starts in the Senate next week. His acquittal is somewhat being treated as a foregone conclusion, as most Republicans tried to stop the trial altogether on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst haven’t come out and said how they’ll vote, but Ernst has hinted that she doesn’t think what Trump did on Jan. 6 warrants impeachment. She was dubious in a press call with reporters last week, but said she’d “listen to the arguments.”
In Closing
That’s it for this week, this newsletter is in its infancy and this was just my attempt to throw all my thoughts onto a page, so I expect it to change over time and hopefully become more visually interesting. Of course the primary reporting I talked about here was mostly not done by myself, so I give my thanks to all the great reporters in the articles linked.
While this space isn’t directly affiliated with the Daily Iowan, I do work there, and we’ve started publishing again for the spring semester. I want to shout out the fantastic reporters and designers for making it shine: You can read our latest issue here.