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Presidential Search Update

Dean David Johnsen, Chair, UI Presidential Search Committee

[E-mail to UI Community]

January 22, 2007, 4:52 p.m.


Dear Colleagues:

On Tuesday, Jan. 23, our Board of Regents will act on recommendations
for membership on our Presidential Search Committee.  The following
nominees are presented with the unanimous endorsement of current
Committee members:

-- Elizabeth Chrischilles, Professor of Epidemiology
-- Sarah England, Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
-- Ed Folsom, Professor of English
-- Gene Parkin, Professor of Civil-Environmental Engineering
-- Cheryl Reardon, Assistant to the Dean/VP for Research
-- Jarjisu Sa-Aadu, Professor of Finance
-- Sarah Vigmostad, graduate student in Biomedical Engineering

Previously named Committee members are Jonathan Carlson, Lee Anna
Clark, Leonard Hadley, Linda Maxson, Paul Rothman and me.

We want to thank the many people who made recommendations for
Committee membership.  The number of qualified nominees far exceeded
the number of slots.  We believe that these people individually and
collectively have a wide range of views and understanding of our
University’s needs. We believe that they can articulate the issues,
help attract top candidates, and evaluate them.  We are optimistic
that we can accomplish our tasks and achieve the goal of helping our
Regents name a new President by July 1.

Our next steps will be to determine our practices and procedures and
share them with you.  We will then meet with major UI groups and
extend the discussions to as much of the greater UI community as
practicable.  Search Committee meeting times, locations and
preliminary agendas will be posted on our website:
http://www.uiowa.edu/uipresidentialsearch/index-draft.html.

Our goal is to see that your point of view is represented, and the
Committee will welcome discussion on any issue related to the search
or the University. To begin, we seek responses to a few questions,
either during these public exchanges or by e-mail:

-- In our message to prospective candidates and in assessing
candidates, what issues and questions should our Committee be sure to
address?  Please suggest issues and questions both for your specific
area and for the greater University.  (For example, in our last e-mail
we brought up the balance of serving Iowa and exceeding the standards
of a top public research university.)

-- What characteristics and experiences should we be looking for in
our next President?  (In our last e-mail we had listed such attributes
as thinks strategically, engages the UI community in planning and
agenda setting, hires and keeps top people, manages current resources
and enhances resources, etc.)

As we move ahead, our Committee will offer collective responses from
our exchanges to see how these mesh with your views.  We also will
adjust our practices and procedures as needed, and we will continue to
eagerly accept input from all of you.

Again, thank you for your input and interest at this important time!