DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Tom Harkin will donate his papers to Drake University after plans to give them to a namesake institute at Iowa State University fell apart earlier this year, he announced Friday.
Harkin said at a news conference at the private university in Des Moines that he wanted to keep the papers in Iowa and provide them for public use.
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“The papers and materials developed as a result of my four decades working for Iowa in Congress should reside in this state, the state where I was born, the state I love, the state I have sought to serve and represent,” Harkin said.
Drake will establish the Tom Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement, a nonpartisan center focused on public policy research. Former Iowa State President Gregory Geoffroy, who chaired the advisory board for the original institute, will play a similar role at Drake.
In February, Harkin abandoned plans to donate his papers to the Harkin Institute of Public Policy at Iowa State, his alma mater — a move borne out of a power struggle between Harkin’s supporters and university leaders over the scope of the institute’s research.
At the time, Harkin said in a letter that he was backing out after it became clear he could not trust university leaders to allow unrestricted academic freedom at the institute. University leaders disputed the claims.
Harkin, a Democrat who decided earlier this year against running for a sixth Senate term in 2014, said he was confident the papers — to be housed in the Drake University archives — would be accessible to the public.
“Sometimes things just happen for the better,” Harkin said. “I have every reason to believe and expect this will be open to the public, it will be done in a nonpartisan way.”
Iowa State University President Steven Leath said he would work to ensure a smooth transition of the institute to Drake. In a statement, he said the Iowa State institute has been inactive since February and that they will honor donors’ wishes about the future of their gifts. Over $3 million had been pledged to the institute.
Drake has a $10 million fundraising goal to support the institute. Drake President David Maxwell said the papers and the institute will enhance teaching and scholarship at the university. He also said there would be no restrictions on the institute’s research and said all donors would be made public.
“We’re very, very grateful to you for your faith in Drake University,” Maxwell told Harkin.
The Iowa State institute was dogged by controversy.
The state Board of Regents approved it in 2011 despite protests from statehouse Republicans and Gov. Terry Branstad, who argued it was an improper way to honor a sitting senator. Harkin backers and university officials feuded over the scope of the institute’s research, while Harkin faced questions about his role in fundraising.
And the research dispute began to simmer last summer when Harkin, his wife and the institute’s governing board learned university officials had signed a memorandum of understanding that barred the institute from studying agriculture — even though Harkin played a role in passing farming legislation and chaired the Senate agriculture committee.
Leath withdrew the memo in November, substituting his own restrictions allowing the institute to conduct agriculture research only if it related to Harkin’s papers and was approved by the school’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development.
When Harkin and the board continued to protest, Leath issued a new policy saying institute research focusing on subjects found elsewhere on campus “is expected to be planned, conducted and published in a cooperative, collaborative manner.”
The largest donors to the Iowa State institute included a South Korean businessman and his Cedar Rapids-based metals company that stood to benefit from Harkin’s proposal in Congress to eliminate the $1 bill in favor of a coin. Emails show Harkin’s top campaign fundraiser gave ISU a list of individuals and businesses to solicit, but Harkin has said he did not personally ask for donations.
