Relating to the appointment of a director of public policy events at each institution of higher education governed by the state board of regents

This bill requires the state board of regents to direct each of the universities it governs to appoint a director of public policy events who shall be responsible for organizing, publicizing, and staging debates, group forums, and individual lectures that address, from multiple, divergent, and opposing perspectives, an extensive range of public policy issues widely discussed and debated. At the university of Iowa, the director shall report to the office of general counsel, while the directors at Iowa state university and the university of northern Iowa shall report to their institution’s office of university counsel. The director must make a reasonable effort to organize a substantial number of such events, and to invite speakers, especially speakers from outside the campus community, who hold a wide diversity of perspectives and can ably articulate widely held perspectives on public policy issues otherwise poorly represented on campus, and to pay the expenses, when funding is available, of speakers who are from outside the campus community. The director must make every reasonable effort to ensure funding is available to host speakers with opposing view points. The director is responsible for maintaining a publicly accessible, current, searchable calendar of public policy events open to the entire campus community on the institution’s internet site, and must make print copies of the calendar available to the campus community. The calendar shall also include similar events organized by other entities affiliated with the institution. The bill describes the details the calendar must contain. The director must also publish the previous academic year’s calendar on the institution’s internet site, make print copies available to the public upon request, and submit copies of the calendar to the institution’s library for preservation and for public access. The director may collect a fee of not more than the cost of printing and postage from anyone requesting a copy of the document. Similarly, the director must make publicly available a complete internet-accessible video record of every event, and organize and publish each such video on the institution’s internet site within business days of the event recorded. Each video must be accessible on the internet site for at least five years and must be provided to the institution’s library for preservation and public access. All events organized by the director must be open to all students, faculty, and staff at the institution and, unless restricting attendance is necessary to achieve a compelling governmental interest, to the general public. The bill defines “campus community”.