BUZZ
Launching the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa hit a big snag this week after nearly half of its Advisory Council resigned in protest.
The en masse resignations come amid concerns from resigning members that the Board of Regents seeks to embed the center’s operations into the university in a business-as-usual setup, rather than allowing it to operate independently to counteract what they view as left-wing bias on campus.
“The legislature created the center in 2025 to teach and research the ideas behind the American constitutional order and to promote free speech, civil discourse, and intellectual diversity on campus — and on the terms the regents have now set, it cannot do what the law created it to do,” according to former Advisory Council member Richard Lowery.
A state law passed over the summer requires University of Iowa students to complete courses in American history and American government based on original, historical and Constitutional documents through the Center for Intellectual Freedom starting fall 2028.
Writing for National Review, Lowery said university leaders so far have refused to list the center’s courses, blocked its hiring of even temporary faculty, and denied approval for routine travel.
He continued: “A center too poorly funded to staff those courses hands the board a pretext to satisfy the reform mandate with cross-listed courses from other departments, as if the departments that created the problem could be trusted to fix it. What remains would be an empty husk.”
Reporting from Iowa Capitol Dispatch states Board of Regents President Robert Cramer points out that rather than an “island of disgruntled nonconformists,” board members want the center “to stretch its engagement across campus and change university culture through their shared goal of teaching civics, debate and American history.”
“CIF will maintain its independence and ensure its courses are taught in a fair and balanced way that matches the legislative intent. But we don’t have to do everything in isolation,” Cramer said.
Regent Christine Hensley, in a news release, thanked the resigning advisory council members for their work thus far.
“The Board of Regents looks forward to working with the remaining 15 members of the CIF Advisory Council to keep the Center moving forward in a positive direction,” Hensley stated.
“The Board and the Advisory Council fully support helping CIF achieve its stated goals of providing scholarship on the intellectual foundation of free societies, the principles, ideals and institutions of the American constitutional order, and the foundations of responsible leadership and informed citizenship.”
Lowery argues it won’t work, writing that a “center that gives up its independence does not close; it carries on and tells donors and legislators what they want to hear.”
These concerns aren’t new.
When The College Fix in May reported on Iowa’s new mandatory American history and U.S. government courses, National Association of Scholars spokesperson Chance Layton said there are potential challenges in implementing the graduation requirements, noting it may be difficult to find qualified teachers “who are not political activists.”
“Professors that are effective civics and history teachers must care about the history of the nation,” Layton said. “The project would fail if the courses were taught by scholar activists and not politically neutral history and civics professors.”
Inside Higher Ed reported that the “fight over Iowa’s civics center represents another example of internal disagreements over hiring, course offerings and more at centers created by Republican lawmakers or university governing boards in red states.”
“…Some are designed to operate with significant independence from the universities where they’re located, leading to conflict over hiring faculty and administrators for the centers.”
MORE: Iowa House passes bill mandating American government, history courses at public colleges
