Students, community members protest DEI legislation at Iowa State University [Video]

AMES, Iowa — Iowa State lawmakers passed the education appropriation bill in the usual timing last session, at the very end of the 100 days. This budget bill included provisions prohibiting public universities from having diversity, equity and inclusion offices on campus.

The bill, now signed into law, passed in a partisan manner in both chambers, with the DEI portion playing into the rationale for that vote. The law is set to take effect next summer and the board of regents will now have to comply with state law, which prohibits DEI offices on campus. The law also extends to training, activities, teaching or practicing of DEI policy, and this extension is what really has some students worried at Iowa State University.

“We won’t go back, we won’t go back,” chanted a group of a couple dozen ISU students and Ames community members while marching from the student union to the …