Statement on Legislative Overreach in Iowa

The AAUP issued a statement in March opposing three proposals under consideration by Iowa’s state legislature that, if passed, would have negative repercussions for academic freedom and freedom of speech on campus. One bill would end tenure, which provides essential academic freedom protections for faculty members at the state’s three public universities. A second would mandate surveys of university employees’ political affiliations, posing threats to personal privacy and freedom of association in the ostensible pursuit of ideological “balance.” A third proposal purports to guarantee freedom of speech on campus. As the AAUP argued in a 2018 report, Campus Free-Speech Legislation: History, Progress, and Problems, legislative attempts to regulate and monitor campus activities risk undermining free speech on those campuses in the name of defending it.

The legislation proposed in Iowa is unnecessary and could also impose costly bureaucratic burdens on public institutions. The AAUP opposes legislation that interferes with institutional autonomy; the appropriate roles of faculty, administrations, and governing boards in decision-making; and the role of students in shaping policies that affect them.