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[Note: This material is copyright by The Gazette, 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 Gazette.]

  The regents decided, on a 6-2 vote, to reject the four candidates recommended to the board for the UI presidency, scrap the current search committee and launch a new search.

  The decision created a furor on campus, with representatives of the Faculty Senate and Staff Council saying they intend to seek votes of no confidence in the regents, and members of the search committee contending the four rejected candidates were highly qualified.

  ‘‘We’re very disappointed . . . in the Board of Regents. It’s embarrassing. They embarrassed us,’’ said Mary Greer, a member of the search committee and president of the UI Staff Council, which represents 5,000 nonbargaining professional and scientific employees.

  Regent Robert Downer of Iowa City, who voted against scrapping the search process, said, ‘‘I thought that virtually all of them could have provided excellent leadership. I am not convinced that the university will necessarily do better another time.’’

  Regent Rose Vasquez of Des Moines joined Downer in opposing the motion, with student Regent Jenny Connolly abstaining.

  Regents President Michael Gartner of Des Moines, one of four regents on the presidential search committee, told The Gazette after the meeting that the candidates were ‘‘wonderful . . . very good people,’’ but that ‘‘I think the majority of the regents didn’t feel the fit was right.’’

  He referred to a statement in which he praised the work of the search committee and said, ‘‘In the end, the regents felt that while these candidates were wonderfully accomplished people, the regents needed candidates who had more experience as leaders who oversaw complex health-sciences operations, as well as the myriad other academic and non-academic operations of a large university.’’

  Regents President Pro Tem Teresa Wahlert of West Des Moines, who led the search, said after seven candidates were interviewed last weekend, four c a n d i d a t e s were forwarded to the board, with ‘‘majority support from the search committee.’’

  But in the end, she said, no individual on the short list had the combined strengths necessary.

  ‘‘The reasoning is that the University of Iowa health sciences are so important . . . that the Board of Regents is looking for somebody who has strength and breadth not only in liberal arts and the academic side,’’ she said.

  Regent Amir Arbisser of Davenport, also a member of the search committee, said the quality of the candidates was ‘‘not the issue.’’

  ‘‘ I guess I would say that it’s very difficult to put into a single individual the breadth of experience and capabilities required to run a complex institution like the University of Iowa,’’ he said. The regents did not specify a timeline for the new search or how it might be conducted. For now, the decision leaves in limbo the process of naming a successor to David Skorton, who left the UI in June to become president at Cornell University. Gary Fethke, former dean of the Tippie College of Business, will continue to serve as interim president. The Friday action further agitated already tense relations between the board and the UI campus community.

  ‘‘The Board of Regents decision is the final betrayal of a process that has been marked at every stage by hostility on the part of board leadership,’’ said Katherine Tachau, a UI history professor who was vice chairperson of the search committee. ‘‘This reflects a mutual loss of confidence that will be difficult to restore.’’

  Faculty Senate President Sheldon ‘‘Shelly’’ Kurtz, a UI law professor, said the regents showed a lack of respect for the university com- munity with the decision.

  He said he believes no faculty member, staff member or student would participate in a second search led by this board.

  ‘‘My view is the regents have simply stabbed the University of Iowa in the back,’’ Kurtz said.

  ‘‘No,’’ Tachau said, ‘‘they stabbed us in the front.’’

  UI Student Government President Pete McElligott, also a search c o m m i t t e e member, called the decision an insult to committee members and the candidates.

  ‘‘This is unacceptable,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re at a loss for how to proceed from here.’’

  Regent Downer agreed that the search process damaged the relationship between the Board of Regents and the UI community.

  ‘‘I would be hopeful that a concerted effort is made to extend an olive branch and to try to devise some sort of search process that will again involve faculty, staff and students,’’ he said.

  The tradition of involving campus constituencies in presidential searches goes back decades and has served the UI well, Downer said.

  Regent Arbisser said the regents intend ‘‘ to connect with all the constituencies involved and to seek their counsel.’’

  Wahlert said there was no connection between the vote and speculation that U.S. Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa City, who lost his bid for re-election, is being considered for the UI presidency. Beyond that, all of the regents reached by The Gazette said they would not comment on specific candidates or individuals.

  The total cost of the failed search will not be known for a month, but Downer said the regents have paid the search firm of Heidrick & Struggles at least $110,000.

  All nine regents, plus members of the search committee, last weekend interviewed seven candidates for the presidency. The search committee then met Tuesday to discuss each candidate, selecting four to forward to the board. The board held closed sessions Wednesday and again Friday before convening in open session for the vote Friday.

  Gartner and Gary Steinke, the regents executive director, said the board was able to meet in those closed sessions last weekend and Wednesday without issuing a public notice because it had not adjourned the closed session it held at the end of the Nov. 9 regents meeting in Ames. The closed sessions were a continuation of that Nov. 9 meeting, which was adjourned at the end of the Wednesday meeting.