As the Iowa legislature’s second funnel deadline loomed, multiple higher education bills were passed out of the Senate Education committee, including HF 401, HF 295 and HF 856. These bills have all been discussed in the Northern Iowan’s print edition at length, whether that’s through news reporting, editorials from the Northern Iowan editors, or opinions written by Northern Iowan staff. It’s a revolving topic in our legislature, and a revolving topic in the Northern Iowan newsroom. As we saw this past year with DEI rollbacks at the regent universities, as legislated by Iowa’s government, the legislature plays an immense role in our education, whether we agree to it or not. I’ve spent hours reading legislation regarding higher education and contemplating how it could affect UNI specifically. One thought has resounded as I’ve poured over the legislation – I wish the Iowa legislature loved UNI the way I do. 

There’s a stark difference in the way legislatures regard UNI and the way UNI students and faculty regard UNI. That difference, in my opinion, is proximity. As a UNI student, I’ve had the privilege of calling Cedar Falls home for the past four years. There are staff on this campus that have impacted my life for the better, and faculty who have spent late nights challenging me to think outside the box. Those crafting legislation that could have consequences for UNI and its students, faculty and staff – they aren’t familiar with the student experience at UNI.

They don’t have the immense privilege of waking up at 8:30 a.m. in Noehren Hall and getting ready for the first day of macroeconomics. They don’t get to mill about in Maucker Union. While they get to legislate what happens here, they aren’t familiar with all of the positives that happen on our campus. They also aren’t familiar with how their legislation can affect our campus negatively. Legislators get to tell UNI students what they can and can’t learn in the classroom. Legislators get to tell faculty and program advisors that their programs could lose their accreditation. But they don’t see the effects on students. They get to turn a blind eye to the toll it takes on faculty, the turmoil professors go through deciding if staying at the institution they love is worth being disregarded by the state time and time again. 

So, if these state representatives and senators really believe in this legislation, if they truly believe that it will positively impact UNI – I’d like to invite you to UNI. Iowa House Representative Taylor Collins, if you really believe this legislation will positively impact UNI students like myself, I’d like you to come to UNI and preach that to me. Come to Cedar Falls and tell me that equality doesn’t matter at a university. Take a walk along the streets of a former sundown town and tell me that racism isn’t ingrained into the state of Iowa, that oppression isn’t etched into our cities and your legislation. If Collins, or any Iowa legislator believes this to be true, I implore you to reach out to me at klinkbaa@uni.edu and set up a visit. I’d love to show you around Cedar Falls, and what the consequences of your legislation really looks like.