Former Iowa Gov. Branstad backs bill for new UI ‘School of Intellectual Freedom’

DES MOINES — In responding to an Iowa House proposal that would require the University of Iowa to establish a “School of Intellectual Freedom,” a UI lobbyist Tuesday announced campus plans to create a new “Center for Civic Dialogue and Leadership.”

Plans for that new center have been submitted to the Board of Regents, according to Chief Government Relations Officer and UI representative Keith Saunders, who said the proposal will be considered at the board meeting in February.

“So we are moving down the road on this,” Saunders said, adding, “The center that's envisioned at the University of Iowa would be very similar to what UNI and Iowa State have already proposed.”

In support of House Study Bill 52’s mandate for a new UI “School of Intellectual Freedom,” former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad appeared Tuesday as a special guest in a higher education subcommittee meeting on the proposal, recounting his own experience as a student at the UI in the 1960s.

“I'm here to testify for this bill to establish a ‘School of Intellectual Freedom’ at the University of Iowa in the Political Science Department,” Branstad said. “I think this is something that is truly needed.”

Detailing proposed requirements for the new school — including mandated instruction on American principles, ideals, historical texts and values of free speech and civil discourse — Branstad said the bill singles out the UI because of work already happening at ISU and the University of Northern Iowa, the other public campuses in Iowa.

“The University of Northern Iowa has recently stood up its own Center for Civic Education, and Iowa State University is also making progress on its own civic education initiative,” Branstad said. “So this would give the University of Iowa the same type of opportunity.”

Regents who he has spoken with about the issue have expressed interest, he said.

“The reason for the bill is the future of our country is dependent on citizens that are well-informed and cherish and celebrate the American heritage,” Branstad said. “That's something that I think is really important for our country — especially in this day and age when we see a lot of concern and a lot of lack of respect for other viewpoints.”

Branstad: ‘Most of the teachers are socialists’

Several people spoke Tuesday on the proposal — including Emma Denney, who identified as a recent UI graduate, having earned a doctorate in May.

“I find this a laughable and ridiculous waste of money, time and resources, and I frankly find it ideologically motivated and pathetic,” Denney said. “I don't understand how you look at the offerings of the University of Iowa and not see all of these ideas already represented there — including through American studies, including through all of the history curricula that are offered. This is just pointless.”

Branstad responded, “Your view is it’s your way or the highway.”

“Let me tell you, I graduated from the University of Iowa a long time ago in political science, and I know that most of the teachers are socialists,” he said. “But I think all viewpoints should be represented.”

Another member of the public agreed with Denney and — using vulgar slang — urged lawmakers to admit the proposal is an “ideological project,” prompting Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, who serves as chair of the higher education committee, to interject and ask for respect and a “basic level of decorum.”

House committee member Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, in speaking against the measure, pressed Branstad — who graduated from the UI in 1969 amid campus protests over the Vietnam War — about his comment that most UI professors were socialists.

“There were a number of socialists that were there,” Branstad said. “And yet I had a good relationship with them.”

Jacoby voiced concern about how the legislation would define “intellectual” and hearkened back to opening comments Branstad made about what he learned as a UI political science student.

“If I heard it correctly, you were paying the University of Iowa quite a compliment for what you learned there in terms of civic leadership and discourse,” Jacoby said. “So I'm looking at this bill and still wondering what exactly it is we're trying to do, other than create another department.”

‘Cyclone Civics’

Under the proposal, the new UI school would employ texts “that form the intellectual foundation of free societies” and aim to “expand the intellectual diversity of the university’s academic community.”

It would be charged with fostering civic engagement among students and faculty and be governed by a set of bylaws aiming toward “free, open, and rigorous intellectual inquiry to seek the truth.”

The school, according to the bill, could accept private gifts and donations and would employ at least five tenure-eligible faculty — plus a dean who would be chosen in a national search. A nine-member academic council — including no more than one UI employee — would help choose the dean, who would have the “sole and exclusive authority to manage the recruitment and hiring process and to extend offers for employment for all faculty and staff of the school and to terminate employment of all staff of the school.”

In response to Board of Regents directives and legislation from the last session restricting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the public universities, UNI in the fall announced plans for a new Center for Civic Education aimed at “fostering civic engagement among students, faculty and community members.”

The center’s first-year activities will include sponsoring speakers and a three-day workshop in the spring for 30 faculty wanting to “learn how to more effectively integrate discussion activities into their courses.”

UNI this year plans to conduct a national search for a full-time director to be in place in the 2025-26 academic year.

ISU also last fall announced plans for a “Cyclone Civics” initiative led by College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Benjamin Withers — with help from the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.

Cyclone Civics will take a three-pronged approach — education, research and outreach — toward helping “faculty and staff across disciplines and across different functions to be able to think about how they can incorporate civics into what they are teaching, whether it’s in the classroom or outside the classroom,” according to Karen Kedrowski, director of the Center for Women and Politics.

The education component will involve curriculum instruction, forums, debates, lectures and other public events for students and members of the public. The research piece will call for faculty proposals of research on civic education, free speech and related areas.

“The purpose of Cyclone Civics is to help faculty and staff across disciplines and across different functions to be able to think about how they can incorporate civics into what they are teaching, whether it’s in the classroom or outside the classroom,” Kedrowski said in a statement.

House lawmakers Tuesday also advanced bills mandating general education requirements for undergraduate students at Iowa’s public universities and requiring regents by the end of November to review all undergraduate and graduate academic programs to determine if they align with Iowa’s workforce needs.

Tom Barton of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com