Iowa Civics Center Director Hire Drops Out

The University of Iowa will need to find a new director for its Center for Intellectual Freedom after the Board of Regents’ selection dropped out just two weeks after his hire was announced.

The Iowa Board of Regents last month selected Carson Holloway, chair of the political science department and interim chair of the philosophy department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, to lead its fledgling civics center. Holloway, who has also worked at multiple conservative think tanks, emerged after a contentious search. 

But The Gazette reported Tuesday that Holloway turned the job down to pursue another offer. Now the Iowa Board of Regents is going back to the drawing board.

A spokesperson for the Board of Regents told the newspaper that the search for the director remains open and that the Center for Intellectual Freedom’s Executive Committee and Advisory Council are planning to meet Friday to discuss other candidates in closed session.

The Center for Intellectual Freedom—which was created by the State Legislature in 2025—is currently being led by a three-member committee of regents after a messy break with its former interim director, Luciano de Castro, who was removed from the role last month. He had accused the board of violating state law, or at least the intent of the law, by allegedly interfering with its operations and undermining its independence. Regents have rejected those claims.

Multiple faculty advisers also resigned this fall amid the dispute between regents and de Castro.