Regents committee reviews Iowa higher-education bills passed by House; registers support for several

Regents staff and board members discussed a package of higher-education bills that passed the Iowa House and moved to the Senate, and said the board registered in support of several measures, staff told members.

Keith, staff member, summarized House File 269, calling it the DEI bill that affects the regents. He said the bill removes paragraph 3(a) from the DEI definition but leaves the bill otherwise unchanged and that it has been referred to the Senate Education Committee with no subcommittee assigned yet.

The committee also reviewed House File 295, an accreditation bill that, according to Keith, would prohibit an accrediting agency from taking an adverse action against an institution for following state law; he said that bill passed the House with no changes and was not contentious. House File 440, a tuition bill affecting the…