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[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.]

Regents President Michael Gartner lobbied to have Deborah Freund, former vice chancellor and provost at Syracuse, included among the finalists chosen by an 18-member search committee, according to members of that committee.

Freund was not included on the list of four finalists the committee forwarded to the Board of Regents. Committee members said the reasons Freund was left off the list of finalists included her connections with the insurance industry, a belief that other candidates were stronger, and concerns about her management style.

On Friday, the regents voted 6-2 to reject the four finalists, saying they did not have enough health science experience. The search was disbanded, and regents have not said how or when they will choose a new U of I leader.

Gartner initially declined to elaborate on the regents' reasons for restarting the entire search. But he gave this insight Tuesday in a letter to The Des Moines Register:

"I believe the four regents on the committee urged that six names be sent. When the regents received the list, six of the eight regents voting simply thought the list could have been stronger - and those six included all four regents who served on the search committee."

Gartner continued: "Among other things, the regents were hoping for a more diverse list - there were no women among the four names forwarded."

The regents could have deviated from the search committee's recommendation and picked someone else to be president.

But Regent Robert Downer of Iowa City said Tuesday that he did not believe a majority of regents was willing to vote for a candidate not among the final four. "There would have been great reluctance to choose someone not on the list," he said.

Freund would not confirm or deny that she was a candidate for the U of I presidency.

"I don't feel that I have much to say at this point," she said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "There are a lot of searches in progress right now, and I don't talk about any of them."

Earlier this year, Freund was named as one of four finalists for president of the University of Arizona. She was later named the top candidate to lead the University of California at Los Angeles, but she declined the offer in May, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Freund resigned from her administrative position at Syracuse in June.

She said, "The time is right for me to take on a leadership position at a major university," according the Daily Orange, the Syracuse University student newspaper.

Freund is still a professor of public administration and economics at Syracuse.

Freund, in addition to her academic leadership at Syracuse and at Indiana University, is a recognized health economist known for research on Medicaid, health care outcomes and pharmaeconomics, according to a biography prepared by Syracuse.

"I was trained to run hospitals and health centers and insurance companies," Freund told the Register on Tuesday.

Among the boards on which she serves is that of Lifetime Health Cos., a $5 billion health care company that includes all Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance plans in upstate New York, according to her resume.

Through health care circles, Freund has met John Colloton, the now-retired longtime chief executive of University of Iowa Hospitals and a member of the board of directors of Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, she said.

"I've met John Colloton several times," Freund said.

She said she has not met John Forsyth, Wellmark's chairman and a former president of the Iowa Board of Regents.

Freund was among seven candidates interviewed in Des Moines on Nov. 10 and 11 by the U of I search committee and the nine members of the Board of Regents.

Those seven were winnowed from a pool of about 150 applicants, the university has reported.

Neither the university nor the Board of Regents has made public the names of any of the seven who were interviewed.

The four finalists included three current provosts at major universities with medical schools and/or hospitals. The fourth finalist is now the president of a well-known school.