Panelists speaking Dec. 6, 2025, at the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa, from left, are center Interim Director Luciano de Castro, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education David Barker, state Rep. Taylor Collins, state Sen. Kerry Gruenhagen and Regent Christine Hensley. The center is still without a director after selected candidate Carson Holloway rejected the offer for another position. — Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch

The Iowa Board of Regents’ selection to lead the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa has rejected the role, leaving the center without a director for the near future.

Carson Holloway, chair of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s department of political science and interim chair of the philosophy department, was selected by the board on Oct. 20 out of three finalists to serve as director for the center for intellectual freedom.

In an email sent to Regent Christine Hensley, chair of the board committee overseeing the center, Holloway said he’s decided to take another job offer for a tenured professor position at the University of Florida.

UNO Professor Carson Holloway in a photo shared by the U.S. Embassy in Austria on Dec. 22, 2025. Holloway gave a speech addressing free expression in the U.S. Holloway is a vocal critic of President Trump’s critics in media, law and politics. He is critical of the Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) that established the “actual malice” standard for defamation suits.

“I believe strongly in the Center for Intellectual Freedom’s principles and mission, and it would have been my honor to be the Center’s leader,” Holloway said in the email. “I came away from my interview and our interactions incredibly impressed by everyone’s commitment to making the Center a success.”

Iowa Board of Regents Senior Communications Director Josh Lehman said in an email the director search is still ongoing, as Iowa law requires the center’s advisory council conduct a national search to fill the position. Closed-session meetings are being tentatively planned to look at other applicants, he said.

The Center for Intellectual Freedom committee, composed of Hensley and regents Robert Cramer and Steve Lacy, is currently overseeing the center, Lehman said in an email. Hensley will lead a discussion about the center director position at the board’s Nov. 11-12 meeting in Ames.

Holloway would have succeeded former center interim director Luciano de Castro, whose last day was Oct. 22. Before his time leading the center was done, de Castro submitted the center’s annual report to the Iowa Legislature, alleging unlawful actions by university and board staff to control the center’s operations.

De Castro refused to comment on Holloway’s selection, but said in an email potentially working with the center in the future depends “to a large extent, on the decisions of the new leadership.” He added that currently “the prospects do not look good.”

Brooklyn Draisey is a Report for America corps member covering higher education for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this story first appeared.