UI Center for Intellectual Freedom seeks additional funding after postponing classes

The center is moving forward with March classes, utilizing a new marketing firm after the center’s January classes failed to secure enough students.

Jacob Calvin, News Reporter

February 25, 2026

Liz Sleper

The Iowa Board of Regents begins open session at the Levitt Center for University Management in Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. The board has overseen the University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Iowa since 1909. (Liz Sleper/The Daily Iowan)

After postponing classes from January due to a lack of student interest and scheduling issues, the University of Iowa Center for Intellectual Freedom is seeking more funding for future development.

Iowa Board of Regent Christine Hensley presented an update for the center at an Iowa Board of Regents’ meeting on Feb. 25.

Hensley claimed the $1 million the center received from appropriations from the state’s general fund in Senate File 647 would not be enough to hire additional faculty and formulate and teach classes for the fall.

“We’ll have to have ongoing discussions at the regent level as to how that will be handled,” she said. “The legislation does have in it that the regents can make determinations as to how best to fund that.”

Regent Pro Tem Kurt Tjaden said the board would need concrete metrics, such as the number of students in the courses, before it could have a fruitful conversation around additional funding.

“I do not know what the goal posts are,” he said. “I think the more clarity, the sooner you can get to that, it would be much easier for us, certainly from a financial perspective, to have a meaningful conversation.”

Hensley said the Center for Intellectual Freedom is also searching for a permanent director. UI professor Luciano de Castro serves as the interim director of the center. Hensley said the center has identified an “undisclosed entity” to help conduct a national search for a permanent director, aiming to bring the director onto the center’s board no later than July 1.

Hensley said de Castro is applying for the position of permanent director, but will not be involved in any discussions regarding the selection process run by the center’s nine-member executive committee.

Hensley said while the center’s January classes were postponed due to low enrollment, the classes scheduled to run from the end of March to May are still underway.

de Castro has hired a marketing firm to develop digital programs that will market the center and attract more students, Hensley said.

“We have learned quite a bit,” Hensley said. “We have quite a good group of courses lined up.”

According to the center’s website, two seven week courses will be offered in March: Political and Economic Institutions in the U.S. and American Culture and Values.

Hensley noted other changes to the center since it launched in August 2025, such as former Congressman Greg Ganske taking the place of former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad on the executive committee due to Branstad’s health issues.

Iowa Board of Regents President Robert Cramer thanked UI President Barbara Wilson and Provost Kevin Kregel for assisting the center in running the two-day inaugural event held on Dec. 5-6, 2025.

“My goal this year is to try to partner with both the university and the center to make it the best we can,” he said. “It is in all of our best interests to have this thing succeed as best as it can. We will work on that this year.”