Freedom of Inquiry

Iowa State University has several policies that encourage and protect freedom of inquiry. The Faculty Handbook makes explicit reference to it in its promotion and tenure policy and in its Faculty Conduct Policy.

The University has a rich tradition of supporting the free exchange of ideas, evidenced by the Committee on Lectures. This university-wide Committee was established in 1958 and now coordinates one of the country’s strongest programs of lecture programming. Supported both by student fees and the Miller Fund, the Committee helps to bring to campus over 130 speakers each year. A full record of recent visits is available on the Committee web site. The Committee on Lectures, whose membership includes 12 students and 12 faculty and staff, screens requests for speakers and seeks to represent a full range of opinions and views.

Several special lecture series are coordinated through the Committee. These include events sponsored by the National Affairs Series Planning Committee and the World Affairs Series Planning Committee, both of which are organized around themes and both of which bring world-renowned authorities to the campus. During the 2004-2005 academic year, these themes were “Is the Bill of Rights in Jeopardy: Civil Liberties in the Twenty-first Century” and “Outside Looking In: International Perspectives on US Foreign Policy.” Speakers included CIA officer Jim Olson, assistant professor of medicine and of women’s studies Naomi Rogers, author Brian Greene, author and Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx, member of the U.S. 50th Anniversary Commission of Brown v. Board of Education Roger Wilkins, reporter Seymour Hersh, and author Joseba Zulaika, to name a few. The Lectures Committee also plays a central role in the programming of the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration, Hispanic Heritage Month, and the American Indian Symposium. In collaboration with the University Committee on Women and the Women’s Leadership Consortium, it has recently begun an annual lectures series on Advancing Women’s Leadership. Given Iowa’s special role in the primary elections of presidential candidates, the Lectures Committee has also been central in arranging for the full range of speakers on political topics.

Freedom in inquiry has its physical presence on central campus in a stylized speaker’s platform situated near The Hub and Beardshear Hall (location of the Offices of the President and the Vice Presidents). Known as the “Free Speech Platform,” the structure was erected by the Government of the Student Body in memory of Edward Switzer Allen, a full-time member of the math department from 1921 to 1960. Allen was a pacifist and a founder of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union. The platform, a reminder of the need for oral debate, was installed the year after his death in 1985. It is a constant reminder that one person can make a difference.

The diversity of ideas is also central in curricular innovation. The undergraduate requirements in U.S. diversity and international diversity underscore the institution’s full commitment to global thinking.

The University’s large number of student clubs is another sign of broad thinking on campus. Student organizations include multicultural, recreational, social, academic, musical, performing arts, religious, military, political, service, and sports groups. Each year, the Government of the Student body reviews the funding for each sanctioned group, producing a healthy debate about the contributions of various organizations.