Iowa Gov. Reynolds signed SF2435 banning DEI offices at public universities

On May 9, 2024, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 2435, an education-appropriations act whose Division IX created new Iowa Code chapter 261J barring the public universities governed by the state Board of Regents from establishing or staffing diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, from compelling DEI statements, and from spending any appropriated or other funds to support such offices. The provision reaches trainings and programming "designed or implemented with reference to race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation" and bars institutions from taking an official position on enumerated contested concepts, including "transgender ideology," "heteronormativity," and "gender theory."

The statute makes the Iowa attorney general responsible for enforcement through mandamus actions brought after any person notifies that office of a potential violation, and it requires each institution to certify compliance in an annual report to the legislature and governor. Its DEI provisions were written to take effect July 1, 2025. The measure was the higher-education predecessor to Iowa's later, broader DEI restrictions, which extended comparable bans to community colleges, state agencies, and local governments and nullified local gender-identity civil-rights protections.