REGENTS MEET ON UNIVERSITY
OF IOWA PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH
(URBANDALE, Iowa)
The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, voted Friday to reject the candidates
presented to the Board for the presidency of the University of Iowa.
³The Search Committee
worked long and hard and did a wonderful job, but 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 of other academic
and non-academic operations of a large university,² Michael Gartner,
president of the Board, said.
He said he and his colleagues
were particularly grateful to Teresa Wahlert, the head of the search committee
and the president pro tem of the Board of Regents. ³She has
devoted the past eight months of her life to this process, deftly and diligently
leading the committee,² he said. ³All of us are in her
debt.²
The Search Committee led
by Wahlert comprised 18 others representing students, faculty, alumni,
staff and community representatives, as well as Regents. All Regents
on the committee Ruth Harkin, Dr. Amir Arbisser, and Gartner, as
well as Wahlert concurred in the decision to seek candidates with
broader experience.
The University of Iowa has
³many, many areas of greatness, and one clearly is the University
of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and the Board wants to ensure that we have
strong leadership to build on that greatness,² he added.
The Board set no timetable
or process for finding new candidates.
Gary Fethke, the interim
president of the University, has agreed to remain in that job until a new
president is hired and installed.