Lawmakers in Iowa and Missouri Introduce Bills to Promote Intellectual Diversity on Campus

State lawmakers in Iowa and Missouri have introduced bills that would encourage universities to host guest speakers with diverse perspectives on important political issues.

According to a report by the College Fix, state lawmakers in two more states have introduced bills to promote intellectual diversity on campus. The bills introduced in Iowa and Missouri would require that public universities host guest speakers with diverse political perspectives.

Breitbart News reported in January 2019 that a group of lawmakers in South Dakota introduced a bill that would stimulate intellectual diversity by ending policies that restrict speech. Lawmakers in Arizona introduced a similar bill just earlier this year.

Now, Missouri State Rep. Mike Moon (R) has introduced a bill that would require public universities to hold events with speakers that hold a “wide diversity of perspectives.”

“Inviting speakers who hold a wide diversity of perspectives, from within and outside the campus community, to participate in debates, group forums, and individual lectures, with particular attention to inviting participants from outside the institution who hold perspectives on widely debated public policy issues otherwise poorly represented on campus,” Moon’s bill reads.

And Moon isn’t alone. Iowa State Rep. Sandy Salmon (R) recently introduced a similar bill that would require that universities facilitate speaking events in which all ideologies are represented.

Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told the College Fix said that mandating ideological diversity at public universities could end America’s current trend of political polarization.

“This idea makes it tough for schools to indoctrinate,” Kurtz said in a short interview. “It may even soften our polarization, because students will learn to see some glimmer of truth even in views they oppose. That would do more to protect free speech than anything else.”

“Imagine if debates over issues like immigration, the Green New Deal, religious liberty, abortion, single-payer healthcare, free college for all, etc., were to become a regular occurrence on campus,” Kurtz added. “Over time, it would regularize the practice of hearing out both sides. … It would also get people speaking more thoughtfully and regularly about the issues that really divide us.”

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