Sen. Tom Harkin said in a letter addressed to ISU President Steven Leath on Tuesday night that he will not donate his congressional papers to Iowa State.

Harkin stated in the letter that it was, “evident that the university would not grant the Institute [Harkin Institute] the very freedoms that I learned to cherish at Iowa State.”

Because Harkin felt the academic freedom of the Harkin Institute would not be met, he decided to not pass on his papers from his 40 years serving in Congress.

The Harkin Institute for Public Policy’s advisory board released a resolution, or recommendation, on Tuesday that Harkin should not release his congressional papers to Iowa State.

“While we were excited about the establishment of the Harkin Institute for Public Policy at Iowa State University, we believe the issues that have arisen regarding unrestricted research and academic freedom at the institute have made it impossible for the institute to flourish at Iowa State,” the resolution said.

“Therefore we sadly and reluctantly recommend to Sen. Tom Harkin that he not go through with the university’s request that he donate his papers to his alma mater.”

Leath responded in a statement that he is “extremely disappointed” by the resolution from the Harkin advisory board and that he “sincerely tried to resolve differences over the operation of the Harkin Institute…”

Leath also stated that he is not sure “whether the Harkin Institute will continue to function.”

The statement from the president also stated that he does not believe his research guidelines for the Harkin Institute, released on Jan. 2, 2013, infringed on academic freedoms.

The research guidelines requested that the Harkin Institute collaborates its research with the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Harkin advisory board voted five to one for Harkin to not give his papers to Iowa State, with Ruth Harkin and Gregory Geoffroy, chairman of the Harkin Institute and former ISU president, abstaining from the vote. 

Board members that voted for the recommendation included Michael Gartner, Rachel McLean, Sally Pederson, Steve Roberts and Charlie Cook.

Beate Scmittmann, dean of the ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was the only board member to vote against the recommendation.

“The advisory board didn’t come to this conclusion without a lot of thought,” said Sally Pederson, a board member. “We regret that this has not developed in the way that we anticipated.”

Check back to Iowastatedaily.com as this story develops.