You may be experiencing whiplash this spring just trying to track the Iowa Legislature’s zig-zag movements. It comes from what some might charitably call a lack of consistency on a key theme.
A set of bills from the Republican majority at the Capitol illustrates this inconsistency.
First, there’s the Legislature’s initiative banning the state universities and community colleges from promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in their admissions programs, hiring practices and academic programs. The politicians say these promote quotas, reverse discrimination and politically divisive ideologies.
The legislation parallels White House executive orders aimed at public K-12 schools, public and private colleges and universities, big law firms, and government agencies at the federal, state and local levels.
The thinking behind these efforts here and in D.C. is the belief that promotion of a welcoming and inclusive work or study environment surely must deprive the best qualified candidates from getting a job, an admission spot at a school or a seat at the table.
Senator Cherielynn Westrich, an Ottumwa Republican, put it this way during debate in March of one DEI bill: “Iowa taxpayers deserve for us to use the best hiring practices and to hire the very best people. Why would we not just hire the very best person, regardless of their particular characteristics?”
That seems simple enough, even if you disagree with these lawmakers, their thinking and their vision (or revision) of history.
Reasonable folks can debate whether diversity, equity and inclusion efforts clear the way for hiring less capable candidates for jobs or academic programs. Reasonable folks can consider whether the *absence* of standards promoting those goals gives a green light to selecting less qualified white male candidates over better qualified applicants from other racial, ethnic or gender backgrounds.
Leaving that debate aside for the moment, let us go back to consistency. Consider the implications of different bill in the Legislature, House File 516, which awaits Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signature or veto.
This legislation would require that at least 80 percent of each year’s incoming class in the University of Iowa College of Medicine and College of Dentistry are Iowa residents. Non-residents would qualify for that priority admission list if they earned their undergraduate degree from an Iowa college or university.
Under the legislation on Reynolds’ desk, the university must notify the Legislature annually of the number of applicants from Iowa that were denied admission to the medicine and dentistry schools, along with a brief statement why each one was passed over.
The Legislative Services Agency says the College of Medicine admitted 153 medical students during the last school year. The College of Dentistry admitted 80 students. Seventy percent of these students were from Iowa, the LSA says.
The University of Iowa has the only dental school in the state. Its College of Medicine is one of two schools training new physicians. Des Moines University now has the other. But in 2028, the University of Dubuque plans to open an osteopathic medical school.
The purpose behind the Iowa-priority admission legislation is a belief the change will increase the odds of more new physicians and dentists remaining in Iowa after graduation.
Inherent under an Iowa preference law is the fact that the College of Medicine and College of Dentistry will need to pass over some better qualified out-of-state applicants, lest the university fail to meet the Legislature’s 80 percent quota.
And in a half-dozen years or so, you might have a recent University of Iowa grad doing your root canal or colonoscopy. As you wait for the anesthesia to take effect, try not to let this thought enter your mind: Is this dentist, or doctor, one of those less-qualified, in-state applicants to whom the Legislature gave an admission ticket for dental or med school in 2025?
Isn’t this just another form of DEI dressed up in a white lab coat?
Or is this acceptable as a way of improving the odds of Iowa having more physicians and dentists, especially in rural areas, whereas other efforts to bring more racial, ethnic and gender diversity to Iowa are wrong?
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Randy Evans can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com.
