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UI Request for Meeting Turned Down

[Note: This material is copyright by the Des Moines Register, 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 Des Moines Register.]

  ‘‘All of these things taken together pointed to someone who would be a superb leader and have the confidence of all involved,’’ Regent Robert Downer of Iowa City said.

  Johnsen said last night he was honored to be chosen and that everyone in the UI community is looking for ways to move forward.

  ‘‘The committee will want to engage as much of the university community and major constituencies as possible and still keep it small enough to move things along,’’ said Johnsen, who has led several administrative searches at the UI. ‘‘That will be the challenge.’’

  The search committee could be named by the first week of January, Regents President Michael Gartner said.

  The search for a successor to David Skorton, who left the UI in June for the Cornell University presidency, has been in limbo since Nov. 17 when the regents voted 6-2 to reject four recommended candidates, disband the committee and relaunch the process. UI faculty, staff and student groups last week overwhelmingly passed votes of no confidence in Gartner and Regents President Pro Tem Teresa Wahlert of Waukee, who led the last search.

  While faculty and staff leaders said they would prefer a faculty member heading the new search, they said Johnsen is a good choice.

  ‘‘He’s an absolutely firstrate individual, and I think he’ll make a splendid chair,’’ Faculty Senate President Sheldon Kurtz said.

  Faculty leaders did say last night they were concerned with how Johnsen was chosen by the board: via e-mails and phone calls between board members. Board members mentioned of various emails, and Gartner said at the start of the meeting that the board had agreed on several issues, including wanting a dean to chair the search and wanting a smaller committee. The extreme secrecy of the first search was a source of concern.

  ‘‘Some lessons they haven’t learned,’’ Kurtz said.

  Regent Rose Vasquez said she prefers to discuss issues related to the committee during a meeting, so members can hear each other’s views. ‘‘I’m not a fan’’ of the calls and e-mails to discuss issues, she said.

  Gartner said the board will meet again to approve the committee membership and said to Vasquez ‘‘that’s a point well taken.’’

  It remains to be decided if regents or students will be involved with the new search. The regents will discuss with Johnsen issues regarding the composition of the committee and then solicit names.

  Wahlert and Vasquez suggested no regents be on the committee.

  IOWA CITY — A request from University of Iowa Faculty Senate President Sheldon Kurtz for a special meeting with the state Board of Regents to discuss the UI presidential search was denied.

  Kurtz wrote a letter to the regents Monday, asking for a meeting in January with the regents and faculty members from the UI, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

  He suggested the meeting to discuss: the key features of the traditional campus- led search process used at the three universities; the advantages and disadvantages of campus-led searches; and the pros and cons of a search process that does not include on-campus interviews of publicly identified candidates.

  Kurtz said last night that Gary Steinke, regents executive director, told him he would not get such a meeting.