(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University is “restructuring” a campus L-G-B-T-Q center to comply with a state law that will go into effect next summer that prohibits state universities from funding Diversity Equity and Inclusion offices and programs. A report released last week detailing D-E-I university changes says the center will be open to all students as a general reservation space and study center. Erin O’Brien is a part of I-S-U Students Against S-F-24-35 and says the change is redundant.

“It’s always been available to all students,” O’Brien says. “In Senate File 2435, it specifically defines a diversity equity and inclusion effort as something that shows preferential treatment to certain groups, but it’s really not preferential. Anybody can show up at any time.” Other changes include changing the job description of two staff members. The center also cannot host its own events anymore and student groups can reserve the space for events. O’Brien, a junior at I-S-U, says the changes show that the L-G-B-T-Q community in Ames is “expendable.”

“It is an area I can go to and be absolutely certain that I will be fine, which helped a lot, especially in my freshman year, when I was way less confident in myself,” O’Brien says. “It’s led to me meeting some of my best friends, and now that chance is sort of being taken away.”

The facility’s full name is the Center for LGBTQIA+ for Student Success at Iowa State University. It’s not clear when the changes will go into effect, but the report says all D-E-I changes should be done by the end of the year. Republicans in the legislature say the offices pursued what they consider a woke agenda and were designed to indoctrinate students into a partisan ideology.