Iowa Board of Regents picks UI political science professor as intellectual freedom center director

The Iowa Board of Regents has made another final selection for the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa’s permanent leader after its previous choice rejected the offer.

After closed-session interviews Wednesday afternoon, the board announced at its Nov. 12 meeting that UI political science associate professor Brian Lai would serve as the center’s new director. Board President Robert Cramer said in his board report that the center is getting a restart.

“The Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa did not work this past year,” Cramer said. “So we’re making changes, and we look forward to working with the new permanent director … to build the center in the right way.”

Carson Holloway, the then-University of Nebraska at Omaha professor previously selected by the board to head the center, took another position at the University of Florida. The center’s advisory council brought two candidates forward to the board last week after it relaunched a national search.

Lai has worked at the UI since 2001, according to his LinkedIn page, and holds political science and international studies bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern University and a political science doctorate from Emory University.

He will be offered a five-year appointment as director starting Nov. 13 with an annual salary stipend of more than $29,000, summer salary of more than $26,000 and annual research stipend of $5,000, Cramer said. Lai will also continue to receive pay from his current UI position, which he will maintain.

Regent and Center for Intellectual Freedom Committee Chair Christine Hensley said during the meeting Lai made it clear how important it is for all three civic centers at Iowa’s public universities to work together.

“He is an outstanding individual,” Hensley said. “He’s got outstanding credentials, he’s got outstanding relationships that will be extremely helpful to us, so the fact that we’ve offered the position to Professor Brian Lai, I’m really excited about it.”

Lai’s connections to campus and tenured position will be helpful as he steps into the director role, Cramer said, and Lai both understands the legislative intent behind the center and that he will need to work with the UI “instead of against it.”

Cramer emphasized during the meeting that the center will have autonomy in its faculty selection and course creation but work with the UI to implement offerings to students. He added that if the board and other stakeholders “build the center correctly, it will endure no matter who’s in power at the Capitol,” and that there is unity right now between the university, board and state government.

“CIF will focus on student achievement and mastery of civics and history,” Cramer said. “Our three centers of civics will all work together, and they’re going to set the bar for the rest of the country. “