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[Note: This material is copyright by the Press-Citizen, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Iowa City Press-Citizen.]

It's been a roller-coaster ride for the university on several fronts, beginning with Skorton's unexpected announcement. The free-for-all continued as UI endured a failed seven-month, $215,000 presidential search embroiled in secrecy, controversy and finger-pointing.

But there were high points, too.

UI replaced key administrators, such as an athletic director and UI Foundation president. It created a new vice president position, broke ground on a new $36 million Hygienic Lab, completed a nearly $90 million Kinnick Stadium renovation and opened a recruiting center in Chicago.

"It's been a tumultuous year," Davenport regent Amir Arbisser said. "It's been a year in which a lot has been accomplished, but the tumult has gotten more press."

Arbisser has been in the middle, but not necessarily the focus, of the controversy surrounding the search to replace Skorton, who became president of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. on July 1, 2006.

Arbisser served on the search committee that was disbanded Nov. 17 when six regents, including Arbisser and the three others that served on the presidential search committee, voted to reject four finalists that had garnered near unanimous support while accruing accolades from the consultant search firm Heidrick and Struggles.

Former Gov. Tom Vilsack intervened to calm a riled up campus, and the regents heeded Vilsack's call to choose one of the finalists. However, the unnamed person backed out.

In December, five campus groups, including the Faculty Senate, Staff Council and Student Government, cast no-confidence votes involving regent president Michael Gartner and regent president pro tem Teresa Wahlert, who led the initial search.

Regents and campus groups had butted heads from the start of the search.

It took three and a half months after Skorton's announcement before regents approved a search committee. Eyebrows were raised when Wahlert was named chairwoman, and the board fueled the fire by adding three more regents to the 19-person committee.

"There was a disagreement in February, March and April as to how that would be assembled," said Steve Collins, a UI computer and electrical engineering professor who led the search that hired former UI president Mary Sue Coleman.

Traditionally, presidential searches are campus-based and faculty led, Collins said.

"We've been doing search process in this manner for the past 40 years. This was big departure from that practice," Collins said. "It certainly has been a turbulent year. It started off rough and no one could have seen how it would end up."

Gary Fethke, retiring Tippie College of Business dean, was named interim president April 3. Even Fethke's appointment came with disagreement, as regents voted him in 5-4, with former president and interim president Willard "Sandy" Boyd receiving four votes.

Fethke took over in June, and just three weeks later named Gary Barta to replace Bob Bowlsby, who quit as athletics director in April.

"It's been an interesting, sometimes stressful, and an often rewarding time for me," Fethke said. "I would have preferred the search ended successfully in December 2006, and that I was now spending my time helping the new person learn about the university. Anyway, I'm trying my best to provide continuity."

"I don't believe that these past few months have been our finest hour, but we will recover from this temporary set of circumstances and continue on as one of the nation's best public universities," he said.

One effect from the search controversy and the lack of a permanent president is fundraising. New UI Foundation President Lynette Marshall said fundraising is down 5 percent from last year, which she noted was the last year in a five-year $1 billion campaign.

"It is interesting the level of passion that has come out among the donors. They have 100 percent support for finding a great president for a great university. They were disappointed that didn't happen in six months," Marshall said.

Marshall said her observation has been that UI donors and alumni around the country are aware of what is happening at UI.

Fethke also has been caught in the crosshairs of controversy between campus and regents all year. The presidential search got much of the attention, but a secretive strategic planning process, which Fethke was part of, also ruffled feathers in the fall.

"The university marches on," said UI law professor and Faculty Senate president Sheldon Kurtz. "It is an institution, not a person. But an enormous amount of people's energy and time and emotions went into the search process. All that time spent, on what turned out to be for naught, was unproductive."

Kurtz has been one of the foremost critics, first of the strategic process and then the search.

Search No. 2 is further along than the initial search at this point. College of Dentistry Dean David Johnsen has been named to lead the search and a full committee is expected to be approved at the regent's next board meeting Feb. 6-7 in Ames. Johnsen has pegged July 1 as the end date for the search.

"We are closer to having a committee formed, but essentially, we are in the same spot in terms of the search process," Kurtz said.

Concerns about the search and the well being of UI have spilled over into the community and the state. Lawmakers have called for regent resignations and a review of higher education governance in Iowa.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said the year hasn't been a total loss.

"We have had a good year as far as state appropriations, the hygienic lab, contributing to economic development," Bolkcom said. "It is certainly not good where we are, but once we do find a president, we will look back at it as a bump in the road.

"We will get back to the business of improving this university."