The University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom’s struggle to attract student interest doesn’t indicate a lack of demand, but rather follows the pattern of similar, successful centers across the country, according to a report from the Common Sense Institute of Iowa (CSI).
“Centers don’t start with demand, they create it,” said CSI’s director of policy and research, Ben Murrey, during a press briefing on Wednesday, April 29, in response to the organization’s legislatively demanded market demand assessment.
Murrey said the report determined that successful civic-focused college programs require faculty, majors, and certifications to warrant success and interest, something the Center for Intellectual Freedom lacks as it nears the end of its first year.
“If we want to see student demand for the center, legislators, the university, the center… if that’s the goal here, they have to create it,” Murrey said. “Their approach will ultimately determine student enrollment.”
The Common Sense Institute (CSI) of Iowa, a nonpartisan research organization that examines policies, initiatives, and proposed laws, studied the market demand for the UI’s Center for Intellectual Freedom, required under House File 437.
The center was championed by GOP lawmakers in 2025 to encourage more varied perspectives on what they argued were overwhelmingly liberal campuses.
The department initially delayed classes at the start of 2026 due to low enrollment.
Low enrollment is normal as civics departments start, study says
When it launched its first classes in March this year, the UI’s newest department was met with tepid interest. Only 21 of 64 available seats were filled, and two people had dropped one of the courses by the second week. Only two classes were offered.
Low enrollment is a pattern found in centers similar to Iowa’s — The Hamilton School for Civic and Classical Education at the University of Florida, the Institute for American Civics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at the Ohio State University — where enrollment rose as faculty was added and state funding increased.
Ohio State’s program, mandated by the state legislature in 2023, didn’t have a single enrolled student in its first two years, while Tennessee’s department, established in 2022, didn’t have any enrolled students in its first year. Florida attracted 52 students in its first year in 2022, and enrollment has continued to grow in the years since.
The three centers each offer certificates or majors, and have at least nine faculty members teaching classes and more than 160 students enrolled. Florida’s student enrollment has ballooned to 2,800, along with 53 faculty members.
The Center for Intellectual Freedom is staffed by only its interim director, UI economics professor Luciano I. de Castro, and does not yet offer certificates nor majors.
Murrey said the questions for the University of Iowa are: “Is there a demand for (civic education)?” “Do students want that kind of education?” and “Would they enroll in courses offered, providing that education?”
“It really does depend on a lot of factors that are yet to be determined,” Murrey said.
Curriculum, majors can enhance student demand, report says
In interviews with 11 civic center directors across the country, CSI discovered success was tied to courses that apply to general curriculum requirements. The report also noted that offering majors, minors, and certifications through the program increases interest.
“Demand factor number one is offering courses that fulfill core curriculum requirements, especially if the center offers only the course that fulfills a state civics requirement,” Murrey said. “I mean, this is kind of obvious, right?”
Murrey said Florida saw a “big jump” when education requirements went into effect.
He also said offering classes that contribute to majors and minors, rather than electives, would increase demand.
It’s the Center for Intellectual Freedom’s lack of classes, in part, that contributed to a lack of student demand, Murrey said — but it’s “quite normal.”
University leadership support, reliable funding may help
Support from university leadership, as well as funding — a predecessor to offering more courses, having more faculty and adding degrees — also leads to success, CSI found.
“The centers where university leadership was very supportive, and regents were very supportive, got off the ground more quickly and had more success and more demand, and they ended up having more enrollment,” Murrey said.
Universities where leadership was “quite hostile … really struggled to get off the ground in those cases.”
UI President Barbara Wilson has been relatively quiet on the center’s role on campus, declining interview requests with the Des Moines Register. The center is an independent academic unit and interim executive director Luciano I. de Castro reports directly to the Iowa Board of Regents.
Murrey also said funding is the launching pad for program success.
“It might seem obvious, but having the funding to hire staff, build out the curriculum, start offering courses, start offering majors and minors… that takes work,” he said, adding schools that received “robust funding early on” saw upfront success and more enrollment.
Iowa legislation has committed $2 million to the Center for the Intellectual Freedom through 2027, with $1 million provided each year to hire faculty, host events, and promote the department. The Iowa Board of Regents said during its February meeting that it’ll need more funding to help grow the center.
“Often legislators and the university want to see proof of demand before they want to… allow the center to hire faculty, get the funding to hire faculty, to develop the curriculum,” Murrey said, asking if you don’t have faculty to build the curriculum, “then how can you build demand?”
Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, who voiced his disapproval of the UI center, said he hadn’t yet reviewed the new report, but isn’t “buying into the excuses.”
“It strikes me that they are stumbling around,” Quirmbach told the Des Moines Register on Wednesday, April 29. “I’m not much buying into the excuses… I think they’re off to a stumbling start.”
(This story has been updated to include new information.)
Kyle Werner is the breaking news and public safety reporter for the Register. Reach him at kwerner@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Center for Intellectual Freedom’s low interest is normal, report says
Reporting by Kyle Werner, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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