The interview transcription review is included below:
Things are changing rapidly at the state and federal levels, but let’s rewind a bit. How exactly did we get to HB60 and other legislation that targets DEI programs and grant funding?
“There’s two larger conversations here. One is at the state level, which you’re referring to in HB60, and then there’s some federal directives that we’ve also been given. At the state level last year, the state legislature voted in some particular legislation that restricted DEI offices at public and regional institutions… any community college or state institution in the state of Iowa who received Iowa Tuition Grant funding. That decision sort of ricocheted into this year’s session and now has an impact on all private institutions who also receive Iowa Tuition Grant funding. We know that upwards of five to 600 of our students here at St. Ambrose are recipients of Iowa Tuition Grant funding, so this is very concerning to us; we would not want to lose that funding. I think when we talk about the situation with diversity, equity, and inclusion offices…in many respects, there was an outcry by many of the legislators in Iowa that those acronyms and statements really reflected a certain political ideology. Unfortunately, St. Ambrose got caught in the middle of that, not because we were promoting a particular ideology but because we use that language to describe the work of student success. Fundamentally, the work that happens in our DEI office is providing accommodations for students who may have a variety of learning challenges that they face. It’s also supporting students who are first generation, it is also supporting students of color and their attempts to secure a college degree, so there’s a lot within our DEI. It was always about student success; it has never been about promoting a particular ideology. That being said, we know we’re likely to have to make some changes in that space.”
There have been talks about how DEI goes into the Ambrosian values: Courage, Justice, Wisdom, and Service. Could you elaborate on that?
“We’re an institution that was founded in the belief that Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is a model of love and a love of all people. As a Catholic institution, we root ourselves in the life and teachings of Jesus along with the teachings of Saint Ambrose of Milan, who was always serving people on the margins. Jesus served the tax collector, he served the Samaritan woman, he worked with the prostitute, he engaged with people who were very unlike himself, and so we take those same values into our education and we say ‘we are a place that welcomes people of all backgrounds. We want to support their success in achieving a degree. We believe we should act with courage in confronting complex issues in our world, and then we want to approach that from a lens of wisdom informed by our Catholic intellectual tradition of a commitment to justice and a commitment to service.”
You have said that this legislation will not impact our current curriculum or student groups, but as you said, certain efforts might have to be adjusted. Can you walk us through what some of those adjustments may be?
“In looking at the language of this legislation, it does not suggest that we have to change what might be taught in a specific class…we will continue to offer our courses as they’re currently designed. We do know that, at the federal level, there’s some language that suggests we may need to adjust the naming of some of our scholarships. It won’t impact students. We’re going to make sure they’re awarded the same amount, it just might be a difference in the name of that scholarship… For example, some of our students receive what’s called a minority scholarship, and that might need to be just changed in name simply because of the federal directive. Organizationally we may not be able to have an office of DEI as described in our current organizational structure, but we will continue to have those key staff members employed in supporting the success of all students through a variety of initiatives in our retention area, our Accessibility Resource Center, and we’ll continue to be able to support our student groups across campus who might align around particular areas, in part because those groups are open to all students.”
What steps will the university take to maintain those SAU core values while still allowing our involvement in the Iowa Tuition Grant Program?
“We’re reminding people that our work in diversity, equity, and inclusion is rooted in our mission and our values of Courage, Wisdom, Justice and Service…We talk about being a place that is welcome and open to people of all backgrounds. We believe that part of that is wanting to ensure students succeed and persist to graduation, and so we will just reposition people and their work in our offices that are supporting that student success. I think all of our faculty and staff are committed to honoring the legislation, but also recognizing that this is work we want to make sure continues. We want to be able to support students who have accessibility needs, we want to be able to support students who are coming from diverse backgrounds. We’re going to support all of our students. That’s our commitment, and so our faculty and staff will remain focused on doing that as we move forward.
There have been talks about creating a group with Mount Mercy University focused on aligning efforts towards Student Success. There have also been talks about creating an Office of Mission Integration. How can these help alleviate any concerns with current and future policies and legislation?
“Two Catholic universities are coming together. We have a whole lot that’s alike, but there’s some things that are different. At Mount Mercy, as an example, they have the Five Critical Concerns of the Sisters of Mercy: Immigration, Racism, Poverty, Women, and the Environment. As part of their educational framework, they introduce students to those particular critical concerns. At St Ambrose, we have our Theology and Philosophy classes that are also introducing students to a variety of Catholic Social Teaching as well as our Catholic Intellectual Tradition. We need to bring both of those together and we believe we can bring the best of both together under an Office of Mission Integration. The goal of that is to really help our students see the many ways in which our own Catholic tradition allows us to lift people up and…do the work of strengthening our communities, strengthening one another, and respecting the human dignity of every person. Once we have that sort of work assembled, we can then easily put that under the work of Student Success: the work of giving opportunity to students, the work of forming holistic experiences for students. We’re able to frame our work and narrate it through our lens of our Catholic identity better. That way, we can ensure we’re never caught up in these, you know, polarizing debates.”
There was a staff forum earlier to provide updates and a Q&A. How did the forum help alleviate worry and address issues affecting the St. Ambrose Community?
“The forum was good. One of the big questions that we talked about is ‘how do we reassure students that they’re going to be supported in this transition? We have a lot of legislation, we have a lot of executive orders, we just have a lot of political policymaking coming at us…there’s always questions about ‘how does that impact me’ and ‘does that change my work?’ This was really an opportunity for people to be able to ask questions and, to the best of our ability, answer those for what we know right now. We also know that will continue to change. The legislation may face Court injunctions, they may face a variety of lawsuits. We will, working with our student governments both at the graduate and undergraduate level, have two student forums soon and we’ll be able to take questions from students at that time too.”
