Holly Brink – Update From the House for District 80

by Rep. Holly Brink

Week 4 Update
Hello Friends,

As always it is an honor to serve you in the Legislature. I want to focus the majority of this week’s newsletter on the House Government Oversight committee, which I have the pleasure of leading along with Vice Chair Representative Jacobsen. The Government Oversight committee has received concerning letters from students around the state about the disregard for the First Amendment at our three public universities. In response we invited officials from the universities to share what they were doing to change their campuses.
1. Government Oversight

Late Tuesday morning the House Government Oversight committee held our hearing on First Amendment violations that have occurred at Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa just in this past fall. Each school apologized for their violations and promised to make changes, but how much of a problem do our universities have if in the span of a couple months each of them disregarded the rights of their students?

At Iowa State University, professor Chloe Clark put in her class syllabus a threat to students that choosing topics that opposed Black Lives Matter, gay marriage, abortion and other social issues could result for dismissal from the classroom. The professor was reprimanded, and apologized to her students but remains employed at the University. ISU now requires all professors to place a statement in support of the First Amendment in each of their syllabi.

The University of Iowa College of Dentistry Dean David Johnson apologized for his response to when students replied to a college wide email that the Dean sent expressing a disagreement with one of President Trump’s executive orders. Dean Johnson announced a new policy regarding political speech that will stop Deans from using their official positions to endorse political positions. Myself and other members of the committee are very concerned about the overall culture of intolerance at the College of Dentistry specifically and the University of Iowa as a whole.

At UNI, the University watched their student government deny recognition to a pro-life club, and only stepped in at the very last moment to correct the situation. This is not the first time that the student government exhibited bias against conservatives; a Turning Point chapter faced repeated challenges in becoming a club in 2019. If you are a conservative group of students at Northern Iowa and you see the bias others have endured to register as a club, would you even bother trying?

Beyond these cases, I have been contacted by students from each university with similar stories. But they almost all have one request. They thank me and the members of the House for standing up for them, but they ask to remain anonymous because they are scared of retribution. In talking with these students from all over the state, I think of my 17-year-old son who is about to head out to college himself. I am worried about the way he would be treated if he attended one of our public universities. We have some of the greatest universities in the country but I want the mission of those universities to be focused on education not indoctrination.

2. Other House Actions

I thought it would be good to quickly discuss some of the noncontroversial bills that passed the House this week. Every year the majority of bills that pass the Legislature do so with bipartisan support, so I have included a couple of those bills so you can get a sense of what we are up to here in Des Moines, beyond the big name legislation.

a. HF 199 – Replaces the word “visitation” with the words “parenting time” when referring to the time awarded to parents to spend time with their children. This does not change the name for grandparents or anyone else.

b. HF 201 – This bill ensures that sex offenders who are required to register on the sex offender registry cannot shorten their time on the registry by moving to Iowa. They will be on the registry for the length of time required by the previous state or required by Iowa, whichever is a longer amount of time.

c. HF 232 – Changes the definition so that disorderly conduct charges only pertain to intentional or reckless disorderly behavior.

d. HF 235 – Creates minor changes to the regulations of service charges on credit cards

e. HF 236 – Expands the types of investment that life insurance companies can make.

The above bills passed with a combined 2 no votes and were sent to the Senate where they will go through the same legislative process they went through in the House.

This week was an important week for ensuring that Iowans can receive a college education from a state university without worrying that their political beliefs will be held against them. I will continue to press the Regent universities on specific plans and I look forward to hearing from them again.

I want to thank so many of you for your continued prayers and support. Please continue to reach out with whatever you need.

Holly Brink
State Representative, Iowa District 80
(641) 295-7111
Holly.brink@legis.iowa.gov