Iowa Democratic lawmakers have sent a letter to the Iowa Board of Regents urging the governing body to refuse to join a new higher education compact. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Some Iowa lawmakers have joined university faculty and student groups in speaking out against President Donald Trump’s new higher education compact, saying joining it would come with plenty of risks but “no benefits.”
Meanwhile, a former Iowa Board of Regents member leaving to join the Trump administration advocated in favor of the compact in his resignation letter to the governor.
Democratic members of the Iowa House of Representatives sent out a press release and letter addressed to the regents Wednesday urging the board to reject the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
“Iowa’s public universities are full of exceptional students, educators, and researchers,” said House Higher Education Committee Ranking Member Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, in the release. “We respect the faculty’s role in creating the great academic institutions we have today. The Board of Regents must protect those institutions and not put them at risk by signing onto a partisan agreement.”
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Included in the compact are policies universities would have to follow in order to receive “benefits” of their relationship with the federal government, including different funding streams. These rules would require participating universities to freeze tuition for five years, restrict international student enrollment, publicize financial and other information and more.
Joining the compact wouldn’t benefit Iowa universities in any way, the Democrats’ letter stated, and would instead put at risk the “teachers, researchers, scholars, and students” whose contributions made the institutions as great as they are, as well as the positive impacts seen across the state from university research, educational opportunities and more.
As there are no specific rewards for joining listed in the compact and no set policies for violations, which could lead the U.S. Department of Justice as the overseeing body to strip all federal funding from institutions for at least one year, the letter stated Iowa’s universities would be left “vulnerable to subjective decisions from Washington, D.C.”
“Signing on to this President’s compact would not only undermine the quality and credibility of our research in the short term, but it would open us up to very precarious funding situations for the foreseeable future,” the letter stated. “Federal funding that flows to our state institutions must be based on the merit of proposed research and not political allegiance.”
The Democrats’ letter follows one from Republican lawmakers Rep. Taylor Collins and Sen. Lynn Evans calling for the board to embrace the opportunity. The Iowa Higher Education Coalition, made up of faculty and student unions at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa, released a statement of its own Oct. 15 asking the board and universities to instead reject the compact.
David Barker, who resigned from the board of regents this week after being chosen as U.S. assistant secretary for postsecondary education, threw in his support for the compact in his own resignation letter to Gov. Kim Reynolds. He said in the letter he has advocated for the board to join the compact “since it was announced.”
“Our students deserve to learn about multiple points of view on critical issues so they can make informed decisions on matters of public concern,” Barker said in his resignation letter. “We must also ensure that our universities prepare students to enter Iowa’s workforce with the skills and knowledge needed in a rapidly changing economy.”
The new compact’s goals, as well as executive orders Trump has made while in office, align with those of the board and universities, Barker said in the letter.
Barker said in the letter he’s “proud” to have worked with board staff and Iowa’s public universities in his role as regent. However, institutions governed by the board should “ensure that our faculty is intellectually and philosophically diverse” if they want to maintain their strengths in enrollment, finances and academics and “achieve true academic excellence and freedom.”
Of the nine universities personally invited by Trump to join the compact before it was opened to all colleges in the U.S., around two-thirds of the group have declined, the Democrats’ letter stated, and other organizations have spoken against the compact and how it could change higher education, including the Iowa Higher Education Coalition.
The letter encouraged the board of regents to “stand with the academic organizations and an increasing number of coalitions, cities, and individuals that have called on institutions to reject the President’s compact.”
“Graduates from Iowa’s universities are working in all 99 counties to develop new technologies, conduct vital research, and create and fill important jobs,” the letter stated. “Let’s focus on what we do well; let’s give our faculty and staff the freedom to educate young people and pursue important scientific discoveries free from political threats.”
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