Academics, higher education leaders and Iowa lawmakers called the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa a good first step in bringing back traditional values of education, intellectual freedom and debate, but they said it must be protected and tightly controlled if it’s going to last.

The center’s two-day inaugural event continued Saturday with discussions of past and current efforts to build similar centers elsewhere in the United States. Discussion also included and updates on how the center at the UI — required by law passed last legislative session and governed by the Iowa Board of Regents rather than the university — came to be and where it’s headed in the future.

Panelists said the fact that the center is on the UI campus and yet outside of the institution’s con

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