Report: Regents Told Leath to Restrict ISU's Harkin Institute

ISU President Steven Leath only ordered a research institute named for Sen. Tom Harkin at Iowa State University to work with another because members of the State Board of Regents told him to, The Ames Tribune reported.

Leath instructed on Nov. 8 that all agriculture research at the Harkin Institute of Public Policy “be coordinated with the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development.”

Previously Leath said he asked for this because Center for Agriculture and Rural Development staff were worried that the Institute's research would lessen their influence, but emails obtained by the Tribune under the Freedom of Information Act showed that State Board of Regents Craig Lang and Bruce Rastetter told him to, the article reported.

Ruth Harkin, Tom Harkin's wife and a member of the Board of Regents, said that Leath followed their advice because he was afraid he would lose his job.

“They are regents, all three of them, and I report to the regents, so I considered that,” Leath told the Ames Tribune Friday. “I understand the chain of command. I also respect the fact that all three of these individuals are successful, smart people, and it would be prudent, especially as a new president on campus, to listen to them.”

That decision though caused a backlash from Sen. Tom Harkin who said if restrictions were placed on research that he might remove his name from the Institute and refuse to turnover his papers.

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