Iowa’s colleges and universities are a fundamental pillar of our state’s economy. These institutions bolster communities across the state, attract world-renowned researchers, writers, and innovators, and supply the next generation of Iowa’s workforce from across the country and around the globe. As the Regents, your stated purpose is to provide safe, quality, accessible higher education to Iowa students and their families. Your recent actions prove you have failed.

Choosing to reopen campuses in the midst of a deadly pandemic will kill students, faculty, staff, and their families. It’s not a question of if or when, but how many lives will be lost.

You claim to be in the middle of an economic crisis, but sit on multi-million dollar endowments. Working families and young people do not have such safety nets.

Iowa’s regent universities maintain police departments, offer six figure salaries to high level administrators, benefit from massive sports programs, and still generate a profit. At the same time, students are expected to maintain the bottomline of our institutions through tuition payments, despite the vast majority of us facing food, job, and housing insecurity. Iowa’s public universities must prioritize the students and Iowans who invest their time, money, and energy here over the profits of a wealthy few.

We call upon you, the Iowa Board of Regents to:

1. Keep campuses closed for as long as the COVID-19 crisis continues
2. Reduce tuition by 50% and waive all fees for the Fall 2020 semester and any subsequent semesters for as long as the COVID-19 crisis continues
3. Institute a 5 year tuition freeze
4. Cease all partnerships with local police departments and defund campus police departments

Keep campuses closed
There is no plausible strategy that keeps campuses open during a growing national pandemic and prioritizes the health and wellbeing of Iowa students. Credits can be attained through online courses and distance learning. Choosing to reopen will kill students, faculty, and staff for financial gain. It’s not a question of if, or when, but how many lives will be lost.

Reduce tuition by 50% and waive all fees
The COVID19 crisis is an economic crisis as well. Tuition hikes were already pricing out marginalized students and making our campuses whiter, wealthier, and more dangerous. Application-based emergency funds will not cut it – this crisis affects every single student, and support must be universal and autonomic. Reducing and refunding tuition is the only way to give Iowa students and families a fighting chance.

Institute a 5 year tuition freeze
Even after the health crisis has passed, the economic impacts of this moment will be felt deeply throughout our state. Young people and working families will not be able to recover if they cannot access higher education in the years to come. Freezing tuition for the Fall semester was a step in the right direction that must be continued.

Defund affiliated police departments
If Iowa’s public universities are experiencing budget crises, why not look to cutting dangerous and unnecessary programs instead of student support and faculty positions? Campus police do not ensure the safety of our schools. They terrorize Black students, indigenous students, undocumented students, trans students, and other marginalized members of our community. To ensure safe and equitable campuses for everyone, we must remove police presence.

The choice is yours. You can save lives and uphold your commitment to accessible and safe higher education, or you can continue to run schools like a business where students are disposable commodities and ignore the moral imperative you have to serve the working families and young people of Iowa in this history moment. Which will you choose?