Despite low enrollment rates and a lack of interest from students delaying its rollout, classes at the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom will now be a graduation requirement under new Iowa law. 

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed House File 2800 on June 2 and the bill will require students from the UI, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa to take a three-credit American history course and a three-credit American government course beginning fall 2028. 

The legislation designates the Center for Intellectual Freedom as the only academic unit at the UI permitted to offer the required American history and government courses.

During a virtual Center for Intellectual Freedom advisory council meeting held by the Iowa Board of Regents on Monday, council members discussed the “vision for the center” and hiring a permanent director.

Board member and UI economics professor Christine Hensley said the regents have been working with Iowa Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, who introduced the legislation, to align the center’s mission and curriculum with the state’s new civics education requirements.

Hensley also said the board was not anticipating the legislation would be signed this session, but the 2028 implementation date gives the center time to hire a permanent director and develop the curriculum needed to meet the new requirements.

“That really gives us ample time,” she said. “And that was the thinking as we talked about hiring the permanent director, that the permanent director would be able to come in and be involved in helping develop the core curriculum.” 

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Hensley discussed an assessment conducted by the Common Sense Institute, a non-partisan, public-policy research organization that reviewed the Center for Intellectual Freedom’s programming, operations, and progress as it works toward becoming a permanent academic center.

She said Collins reviewed the market assessment and has long supported incorporating the center into the core curriculum, a goal ultimately reflected in the new law.

However, Liz Mathis, a former Democratic member of the Iowa Senate, raised concerns over the mandate. She said she struggled to reconcile the center’s mission of promoting intellectual freedom with a law requiring students to take its courses.

“If we are to be a Center for Intellectual Freedom, why is it mandatory?” Mathis said. “[Collins] put this law together, and it’s mandatory that the students have to take this class, but yet we are talking about intellectual freedom. It feels a little disjointed to me.”

The council discussed how they will appoint a permanent director for the center, emphasizing the need for regent approval. 

Hensley said Rachel Boone, the regents’ chief academic affairs officer, should play a central role in the process by serving as a liaison between the search committee and the board.

Richard Lowery, a University of Texas at Austin associate professor, is the chair of the search committee for the center’s director. He said he thinks there needs to be people on the board who are outside of the higher education system to help hire the center’s director. 

“It may come as a shock, or you might be surprised to the extent to which there are people who are just going to be inveterately hostile to anything we are doing,” Lowery said. 

According to Lowery, the original plan was to hire a professional search firm to help recruit candidates, but after that fell through, the advisory council is conducting the search itself.

Lowery said the council plans to post the position through the regents’ hiring system and academic job boards before reviewing applications and recommending finalists to the full advisory council. He said the search will move quickly, with applications due July 30 and a final recommendation expected before the Board of Regents’ September meeting.

The council also discussed pausing classes at the center until July 2028 when the course requirements are scheduled to take effect. Lowery, however, argued that delaying instruction could create challenges when the center is required to offer courses to a much larger number of students.

“I really would hate to see us try to scale up to have enough faculty to teach all of these required classes in the fall when they’re starting,” he said. “The idea of hiring that many people at once is causing me enormous anxiety already, so if we could maybe think about having other classes where they will count for something, where we can go ahead and start having people come in and get their feet wet.”

Luciano de Castro, the center’s interim director, gave a presentation and discussed the center’s first year of operations, including course enrollment, policy development, and preparations for its expanded role under the state’s new civics education requirements.

According to de Castro, the two classes offered by the center had a total of 19 students enrolled. He said this low enrollment rate can be attributed to the fact the courses currently count as one semester hour and are electives which don’t go toward student’s majors or minors. 

“The students try to put priorities in courses that will bring not only hours but also bring them closer to complete a major, a minor, or a certificate, and those courses do not have this characteristic,” he said. 

Based on the market assessment from the Common Sense Institute, de Castro said the study found that centers similar to Iowa’s often build enrollment by offering courses that satisfy degree requirements. 

The report identified graduation requirements and academic credentials, such as minors and certificates, as key factors influencing student participation.

“The centers do not start with the demand — they create it,” de Castro said.