Students: ISU LGBTQ Center turned into ‘generic study lab’ by IA Republicans’ DEI law

Iowa Republicans’ decision to restrict DEI programs means the loss of one university’s LGBTQ+ center, where students have found friendship and safety to be themselves for decades.

When Madison Omtvedt visited the suite of offices that make up the Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success at Iowa State University’s Memorial Union, she felt free.

“I always left there feeling happier, feeling like I existed for a minute, and I didn’t think so hard about it,” she said.

Without it, Omtvedt said life on campus as an LGBTQ+ student would be filled with wondering how much she can talk about herself and her identity, and whether she’s going to be harassed for coming out to the wrong person.

The Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success has gone by a few different names, but it has existed for more than 30 years at Iowa State. When it began in 1992 as the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Student Services, the goals were developing programs to improve the campus climate and retaining gay, lesbian, and bisexual students at the university. It expanded to include transgender students in 1996, and expanded to all queer identities in 2017.

Going forward, though, the Center likely won’t be able to focus on LGBTQ+ students.

Republican pressure on DEI programs

Instead, according to a report from the university, Iowa State will restructure The Center and “the university will turn it into a ‘general reservation space’ with study areas and computer labs for all students,” according to Iowa Capital Dispatch. Activities at the Center will be handled by student organizations instead of the two staff members at the Center who are currently responsible.

All of this is being done because, in 2023, the Iowa Board of Regents—after pressure from Republicans in the Iowa Legislature—developed a plan to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at all three state universities.

Iowa Republicans included language in the 2024-25 education appropriations budget to restrict DEI.

History of attacks

This action comes on the heels of other attacks from the Iowa Legislature on LGBTQ+ Iowans, particularly trans Iowans. In 2022, the state banned trans girls from playing school sports.

In 2023, the state banned trans children from using the bathroom at school, banned gender-affirming care for children, banned books with LGBTQ+ topics and characters, banned education about LGBTQ+ identities.

In 2024, Republican lawmakers tried to remove gender identity as a category under Iowa’s civil rights law.

‘Diluting the spaces we have to be ourselves’

“It’s definitely going to leave a gap,” Omtvedt said. “Having it be open to all students is kind of like diluting the spaces that we have to be ourselves, because there’s a lot of people who don’t feel that they can be themselves on the rest of campus.”

Because the Center is a place where LGBTQ+ students are openly welcomed, changes will also make it harder for those students to find each other.

“For so many people, they might identify as queer, but until they find a community, it’s hard to feel like it’s real,” she said.

Jackie Snook, a junior and first-year transfer student, said she had a hard time making friends in high school and community college because she never felt like she fit in. That changed when she came to Iowa State.

“The Center has really helped get me out of my shell. And I’ve made so many amazing connections through the Center,” she said.

Snook also worries about losing the events the staff at the Center organize and host. She said the student organizations are going to step in, but they don’t have the time and resources to take over all of them.

Students are “scrambling” to figure out who can fill in the gaps, and Snook said she’s going constantly because she doesn’t know how much longer she’s going to be able to.

“[The Center] is something special with three decades of history behind it, and it’s being taken away so it can be just a generic study lab,” she said.

Students are also disappointed and hurt that the Iowa Legislature is taking their spaces away.

“All we have is one room in one building, and now they’re even negating that,” Omtvedt said. “Not having that community space to meet freely and ensure safety is going to make it hard to find another place to have those things, because it’s not something that can be in any space. It’s something you have to really carefully craft and ensure that it’s accessible to all people.”