The Iowa Board of Regents discussed bylaws for the Center for Intellectual Freedom at their meeting on Wednesday. The regents did not take action Wednesday, and will vote on the bylaws at their meeting on Thursday.

The proposed bylaws were drafted by the interim director for the center, Luciano de Castro, including guidelines for how the center will be governed and its goals. Regent Christine Hensley said the first inaugural event for the center would be Dec. 5 and Dec. 6,  for which a second budget has been put together.

An initial budget was put together with overall operations that included $1 million in appropriations from the state, Regent Hensley said.

House File 437, signed into law in April, requires the creation of the UI Intellectual Center for Freedom. The center will do research and teach classes on  “historical ideas, traditions, and texts that have shaped the American constitutional order and society.” 

The law also states that the center will “work to expand the intellectual diversity of the university’s academic community.” The law requires the regents to pass a set of bylaws, with some bylaws listed as required in the bill. According to the law, these required bylaws shall take precedence over any other requirements in the bylaws. 

Several regents brought up concerns about two of the sections within Article Four of the bylaws titled “Membership,” including Regent Nancy Dunkel and Regent Robert Cramer.

Cramer proposed the board strike a sentence from section two of the article, stating “a majority of the Executive Committee members will be Advisory Council members who are current or former tenured professors from R1 institutions, which are universities that, according to the Carnegie Classification of Research Institutions, have very high research activity.  

“I’m just thinking 10 and 15 years down the road,” Cramer said. “To lock in that people from outside are a majority doesn’t seem quite right.” 

Regent Dunkel suggested the board take a closer look at section four of the same article. Section four states, the scholar committee should consist of no less than five and no more than half of the current membership of the advisory council. 

The section also stated that the members of the scholar committee should be Advisory Council

members who are current or former tenured professors. Dunkel said she wished she had access to exact numbers, which were not originally provided to the regents. 

RELATED: Iowa Board of Regents finalizes UI Center for Intellectual Freedom advisory board

“How many people from the original university? How many of those fall into this category? I mean, who are you choosing from? Because I’m curious how many of those are Iowans,” Dunkel said. 

Regent Hensley said she would be able to provide the board with specifics when the board discussed the matter on Thursday. Bates suggested that the information be provided before the meeting tomorrow, and that she agreed with Dunkel and Cramer. 

“I’ve heard from others just concerns that it’s not an Iowa-based executive committee, and I think that that’s really important to have,” Bates said. 

Dunkel also asked how the board was planning on measuring the success of the committee, so that the board could report back to constituents on what work they’ve been doing and what has been accomplished. 

“Figuring that out, what is the measure of success?” she said, “Something tangible that we can say to Iowans, here’s the good job.’”

Hensley said a yearly report to both the legislature and regents would be provided, stating expenses and statistics to illustrate what the committee accomplished. 

Cramer said that there were several goals for the committee that pertained to work they would accomplish over the next year. 

“The goal is to raise the level of civic knowledge and engagement by our students,” Cramer said. “But then also with the long-term intent of adding more debate to our campus. Where people of different sides can view different opinions, and we can let the students grapple with those things.” 

Cramer also said the greatest benefit would be attracting people of diverse political thought to come to Iowa universities. The regents did not take action on the bylaws today, and they will be discussed on Thursday.

The advisory council is set to meet via Zoom on Nov. 18 in open session.