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Gov. Reynolds, conservative activist Christopher Rufo to headline UI Center for Intellectual Freedom event
The first session asks, ‘Can universities be reformed?’
Dec. 3, 2025 3:58 pm, Updated: Dec. 3, 2025 4:54 pm
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IOWA CITY — Gov. Kim Reynolds is among the nationally-known names slated to speak at this weekend’s inaugural event for the University of Iowa’s Legislature-imposed Center for Intellectual Freedom, according to a schedule provided to The Gazette.
The seven-hour “Reforming Universities Summit” in the Old Capitol Building on the UI campus will include three sessions with three different panelists or speakers for each, followed by an invite-only dinner in the Iowa Memorial Union ballroom.
For the capstone session wrapping a day of higher education-related discussion and debate, Reynolds will give the opening remarks — followed by U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education David Barker, who until his recent federal appointment was a member of Iowa’s Board of Regents.
Christopher Rufo, author and senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, will give the keynote address. Rufo is a well-known conservative activist and critical race theory opponent who has pushed for higher education reform and been instrumental in triggering some of the Trump administration’s college- and university-directed moves.
“Less than 1 percent of Harvard faculty now are conservative because they have been ruthlessly, through DEI policies and other ideological preferences, weeded out of the university departments,” Rufo told PBS earlier this year in a discussion about his ideas for improving higher education. “The idea that these places are bastions of free speech and open inquiry is not supported by the facts.”
The sessions
Opening the Center for Intellectual Freedom event at 1:30 p.m. Saturday is a discussion on “Can universities be reformed?” led by a trio of panelists — two of whom are on the Center for Intellectual Freedom’s advisory council.
- Sergiu Klainerman, who identifies politically as an independent, is a mathematician at Princeton and on the council;
- Harald Uhlig, who also is on the council and identifies as independent, is a German microeconomist and professor of economics at the University of Chicago. Uhlig in 2020 criticized the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter and later faced allegations of discrimination in the classroom. He was put on leave temporarily but reinstated after investigators found no basis for a disciplinary proceeding.
- Scott Atlas — the only of the three not on the center’s advisory council — is the Robert Wesson senior fellow in health policy at the Hoover Institution with Stanford University. In 2020, he served as a special adviser to President Donald Trump and as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Stanford’s faculty senate in 2020 censured Atlas for promoting a view of COVID “that contradicts medical science” and for “damaging Stanford’s reputation.”
That group is tasked with leading an “open discussion on the challenges and potential for success,” to be followed by a second session at 3:30 p.m. titled, “Possible actions and next steps.”
That discussion again will involve two council members and one person not on the advisory group.
- Mark Bauerlein — an independent and among those on the council — is an English professor emeritus at Emory University, who in 2023 was appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to serve on the board of trustees for the New College of Florida during a controversial shake-up. As a contributing editor of First Things — a magazine published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life aimed at advancing a “religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society” — Bauerlein has written of his opposition to DEI.
- Joshua D. Rauh, an independent who also is on the council, is a finance professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
- Siri Terjesen, not on the council, is a professor and associate dean for research and external relations at Florida Atlantic University and executive director of the Madden Center for Value Creation. Terjesen serves as chapter adviser of her campus’ College Republicans.
A cocktail party from 4:45 to 5:30 will segue into the capstone session with Reynolds, Barker and Rufo.
Open to the public
The Board of Regents, in discussing the upcoming event Wednesday, noted some backroom debate about whether the event will be open to the public.
“Last night, I received a phone call that the first part is going to be closed session,” regent Nancy Dunkel said, reporting the caller said the public would only be allowed to the capstone portion of the event. “Is that true?”
Regent Christine Hensley, who chairs the center’s advisory council, said that had been discussed — but Board of Regents Executive Director Mark Braun said too many advisory council members will be in attendance to keep the event closed.
“Given the fact that the majority of the advisory council will be in attendance for the entire event, in order to comply with Iowa's open meetings law, the entire event must be open and available,” he said.
The issue now, according to Hensley, is figuring out room capacity concerns.
“I know that they're working now to try to figure out how to allocate the open seats that will be available,” she said.
Center for Intellectual Freedom inaugural event
What: Reforming Universities Summit
When: Saturday, Dec. 6
1:30-2:45 p.m.: Session 1
2:45 p.m.-3:30 p.m.: Coffee, refreshments and museum tour
3:30-4:45 p.m.: Session 2
4:45-5:30 p.m.: Cocktail party
5:30-6:45 p.m.: Capstone session
7-8:30 p.m.: Catered dinner, invite only
Where: Old Capital Building on the University of Iowa campus
Source: Center for Intellectual Freedom
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
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