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"We're paying more and more so it's ever more important that we have a voice on this committee," said Peter McElligott, president of the U of I Student Government.

Members of the Board of Regents have suggested omitting a student representative from a 12-person search committee that will interview presidential candidates and choose finalists.

Search committee chairman David Johnsen, dean of the College of Dentistry, has not said whether a student will serve on the panel.

U of I students, returning to Iowa City this week for the spring semester, took issue with their potential lack of representation on the new search committee.

E-mail messages among the regents that were made public in the past month showed that the board was considering no student representation on the new committee.

"At least somebody who we voted in should be on the committee," said U of I graduate student Lucas Bohnett, referring to a student government representative serving on the panel. "Students should get a fair chance to express their views."

Two student government groups voted overwhelmingly last month to support resolutions of no-confidence in the Board of Regents leadership after the board decided Nov. 17 to reject four presidential finalists. A Facebook.com group called "No Confidence: Iowa Board of Regents," has almost 700 members.

But some U of I students are avoiding the issue.

"I know absolutely nothing about it," U of I freshman Kimberly Mikesh said of the revised presidential search.

U of I sophomore Kaitlyn Malone said many U of I students don't understand what is happening with the presidential search.

"I think the student body as a whole doesn't know a lot and that's reflective of the lack of communication between the students and the Board of Regents," she said.

Jenny Connolly, a regent and graduate student at the University of Northern Iowa, said she has been pushing hard for a student representative on the search committee.

"I would really hate to see this be the first presidential search committee without a student," Connolly said.

McElligott and graduate student Punit Vyas served on the 18-person presidential search committee that was disbanded after the first search.