The Iowa House Higher Education Committee advanced a bill to create a new School of Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa Wednesday.

The bill is one of five advanced by the committee Wednesday. They are among more than a dozen being considered by the new committee this session. The committee aims to reform higher education in the state, as higher education increasingly becomes a target for the conservative movement.

While Iowa Republicans aim to reform Iowa’s regent universities, the University of Iowa has drawn their ire for not hosting a civics center like the University of Northern Iowa or Iowa State University.

That would change under a bill advanced by the committee Wednesday, which aims to create a new school of Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa. The bill, House Study Bill 52, advanced on a party line vote on Wednesday.

The school would focus on teaching and researching “the historical ideas, traditions, and texts that have shaped the American constitutional order and society,” according to the bill.

The bill would also task the school with offering school-wide programming on free speech and civil discourse, work to expand intellectual diversity, and foster civic engagement. The bill requires the university hire at least five tenure-eligible professors for the department, though they can teach in other departments as well.

Iowa Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, said he would not support the bill because there is intellectual diversity at the UI, and the creation of the school is not needed.

Jacoby said the presenter at the committee meeting that day, Luciano I. de Castro, an economic professor at the UI and a conservative who spoke in support of the bill in the presentation, was proof the bill wasn’t needed.

De Castro spoke about research showing the UI’s faculty were skewed to the left, citing a 2020 study that showed there were far more faculty registered as Democrats than Republicans.

De Castro also detailed his journey to becoming a tenured faculty member at the UI and said his conservative ideals made it difficult for him to be published, hurting his reviews by peers. However, de Castro has reached the highest level of tenure despite this.

Jacoby said de Castro’s accession to a tenured faculty member and former Iowa Gov. Terry Brandstad’s testimony before a subcommittee on the bill — in which he said he got a well-rounded education at the UI where he received a bachelor’s in political science in 1969 — proved the UI didn’t need the school to be codified.

During a subcommittee on the bill, Keith Saunders, a lobbyist for the Iowa Board of Regents, said the UI had submitted plans for a Center for Civic Dialogue and Leadership to be considered at the regents’ February meeting.

“I’m just a little bit dismayed at the creation of this department,” Jacoby said. “Governor Branstad said he received a top-notch education at the University of Iowa, and while he was there were diverse teachers that he worked with. So, in my opinion, this bill is not needed.”

Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, said the concentration of Democrats in academia makes for a non-diverse group of opinions and that it is steering the state in the wrong direction.

“I submit to you that what we’re having happen is a non-diverse group at the University of Iowa diverging off into a path that really do we want as a state of Iowa to be happening?” Wills asked, rhetorically.

Bills to review academic programs, change general education requirements advance

A bill to order the Iowa Board of Regents conduct a review of all academic programs at Iowa’s three regent-controlled universities was the least divisive of the five considered Wednesday with lawmakers agreeing 10-1 to advance the bill to the House floor. Only Jacoby voted against the bill.

The bill, House Study Bill 50, would require the regents to study the programs and how they align with the workforce needs in the state and complete the report by Nov. 1 of this year.

During the subcommittee hearing on the bill, representatives from the Iowa Board of Regents indicated they already review academic programs on a seven-year basis.

Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said she supports the bill because it accomplishes the main goal of the committee laid out at the start of the session: a comprehensive review.

“I think that the purpose of this committee should be to investigate and look into how our higher education institutions are working,” Konfrst said. “So, I support the legislation.”

Another bill that gained bipartisan support Wednesday was a bill to cap tuition increases at regent universities at 3 percent year over year. The bill, House Study Bill 51, passed the committee in a 9-2 vote with only Iowa Reps. Jacoby and Monica Kurth, D-Davenport.

The bill would also require the regents set tuition rates prior to December 31 of the prior year, almost six months earlier than their current practice, which typically occurs during the June meeting before the fall semester.

The bill would also bar regent universities from raising tuition on in-state undergraduate students during their four-year degree. Lastly, the bill requires the regents create at least one three-year degree program before the start of the 2027-28 school year.

During comments on the bill, Jacoby offered an amendment that would make the Iowa Board of Regents an elected body. Jacoby recently introduced a similar bill.

The bill, House File 194, would make the board of regents an elected body with eight elected positions, and a student regent would be appointed by the board. Two regents would be elected from Iowa’s 1st, 2nd, and 4th congressional districts — each home to a regent university — another would be elected statewide, and another by voters in Iowa’s 3rd congressional district. The elections would take place during school and city council elections, also known as off-year elections.

The amendment was rejected along party lines.

The committee also voted to advance a bill to change the general education requirements for Iowa’s regent universities. The bill, House Study Bill 63, advanced out of the committee Wednesday on party line.

The bill would standardize general education requirements at Iowa’s regent universities and would change requirements for American heritage and western heritage classes to general education requirements.

The committee also advanced a bill to require regent university students to take an American Civics course to graduate. The bill, House Study Bill 56, advanced on a party line vote.