On December 5th and 6th, 2025, the University of Iowa's Center for Intellectual Freedom held its inaugural event.

On December 7th, 2025, Rock Hard Caucus released our 226th episode, discussing the CIF inaugural event with Clara Reynen, an attendee of the event.

On December 8th, 2025, Justin Comer submitted a records request to the University for "email correspondence received by UI President Barbara Wilson and/or Provost Kevin Kregel regarding the Center for Intellectual Freedom between the dates of November 1st and December 8th, 2025."

On January 9th, 2026, Aubree Johnson (UI public records officer) emailed Justin and estimated a cost of $90 to fulfill the request.

On January 15th, 2026, Justin paid the $90 (thanks to Little Village for covering the fee).

On March 10th, 2026, Justin emailed Aubree to check in.

On March 13th, 2026, Aubree responded to Justin's email, confirming that all relevant records had been gathered.

On April 5th, 2026, the Cedar Rapids Gazette published an article which indicated they'd received around 4,000 documents related to the CIF inaugral event.

On April 13th, 2026, at 7:56AM, Justin emailed Aubree again.

On April 13th, 2026, at 6:14PM, Aubree emailed Justin the records.

You can download the full records release, a collection of 32 PDFs in a zip file, by clicking here.

An email dated 11/13/2025 included a CIF budget document that was redacted from the records release.

11/19/2025 4:49PM - an email from Liz Crooks (Pentacrest Museums Director) expressing security and logistics concerns for the upcoming event.

11/19/2025 5:10PM - an email from Kevin Kregel (University Provost) validating Liz’s concerns and encouraging her to “kill them with kindness.”

11/29/2025 - an email from Luciano De Castro (CIF Interim Director) to inaugural event participants, ensuring them that events will be closed-door, invitation-only. PDF attachments were redacted from this record.

12/2/2025 1:08PM - an email from Suzanne Stratton (budget financial officer for the VP and Provost) informing the Provost that De Castro intends to charge the public to attend the CIF event.

12/2/2025 1:23PM - an email from Kevin Kregel expressing his disapproval of this idea.

12/2/2025 1:26PM - an email from Suzanne Stratton with more details of her conversation with De Castro.

12/2/2025 1:36PM - an email from Kevin Kregel sharing a “hard no” from Mark Braun (Executive Director of the Board of Regents).

12/2/2025 3:17PM - an email from Luciano De Castro suggesting charging the public to fill empty seats at the CIF inaugural event.

12/2/2025 3:31PM - an email from Suzanne Stratton indicates she does NOT endorse charging for the open seats.

12/3/2025 7:33AM - an email from Mark Braun informing De Castro that this is an open meeting and he cannot close any sessions or charge the public to attend.

12/3/2025 1:03PM - an email from Collin Sawyer (CIF Administrative Services Manger) informing campus security that the CIF events are required to comply with open meetings laws.

12/3/2025 1:26PM - an email from Mark Bullock (Assistant VP of Campus Safety) to Peter Matthes (Senior Advisor to the President and Vice President for External Relations), expressing his discomfort with the lack of coordination for the upcoming event.

12/5/2025 - an email with a redacted guest list for the inaugural event.

12/7/2025 - an email to Barbara Wilson, sender redacted, congratulating her on the new Center as well as a “Center For Disabilities and Freedom,” which doesn't exist. The Center for Disabilities and Development has existed since 1947. This is the ONLY message from a member of the public included in the records.