Iowa State Senator Wants Public Colleges to Cut Ties With Stanford Over Halftime Show

A bill in the Iowa Senate would ban the state’s three public universities from collaborating with Stanford University, except in athletics, until Stanford apologizes for its marching band’s halftime performance when Stanford and the University of Iowa faced off in the Rose Bowl.

Introduced on Wednesday by Mark Chelgren, a Republican, the bill asks Stanford to “publicly apologize to Iowa’s citizens and to the University of Iowa for the unsporting behavior of the Leland Stanford Junior University marching band.” The band’s skit, which featured a cow and other “hick” stereotypes, caused an uproar among Iowa fans.

Herman Quirmbach, chairman of the State Senate’s education committee and a Democrat, told The Des Moines Register that “for us to cut off contact with Stanford over something that happened on a football field I think sinks to a level that would be unworthy of our fine research institutions.”

The state’s flagship, the University of Iowa, has in recent weeks found itself in the news for unusual reasons. Like when a goat, which was being transferred to an animal-housing facility, escaped to freedom last week. (It was still on the loose as of Thursday afternoon.)

And late last month The Niagara Gazette reported that the university’s fight song was being played for several hours a day on repeat in a vacant building in Niagara Falls, N.Y. A university spokesman said he had “no clue” why the song was being played hundreds of miles from the campus.