Departures leave the center’s advisory council largely in the hands of Iowa political, business, and Board of Regents figures
Eleven academic members of the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom advisory council have resigned together, saying they no longer have confidence in the Iowa Board of Regents or the center’s direction.
The resignations reduce the 26-member council to 15 and remove academics from institutions including Stanford, Princeton, Northwestern, the University of Chicago and the University of Texas.
The break followed a dispute between University of Texas professor Richard Lowery, who chaired the council’s scholar committee, and Regents President Robert Cramer over the search for the center’s permanent executive director.
According to emails obtained by the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Lowery objected to the Regents’ control over the selection process and said he believed the center would fail under the board’s direction. Cramer responded that Lowery appeared to want to run the center his own way and told him to work collaboratively with Regent Christine Hensley or step down. Lowery and 10 other academics chose to leave.
The dispute is partly about who ultimately controls the center. Iowa law directs the advisory council to conduct a nationwide director search and submit finalists to the Board of Regents. The board then approves and appoints the director.
The resignations leave 15 council members, including 13 Iowans. According to the Press-Citizen, none of those 13 are academics; remaining members include Fareway CEO Reynolds Cramer, former Gov. Terry Branstad, former state Sen. Liz Mathis and several Regents.
The Regents recently created a separate three-member Center for Intellectual Freedom Committee consisting entirely of Regents Hensley, Robert Cramer and Steve Lacy to oversee the center’s budget, activities, priorities and compliance with state law.
The Center for Intellectual Freedom itself was created by the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature in 2025. Its statutory mission includes promoting free and rigorous intellectual inquiry, intellectual diversity, civil discourse and study of the American constitutional order. The law also requires UI to eventually employ five tenure-eligible faculty members through the center.
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