Our Quick Take on Last Week's
News Stories: Regents
Iowa City Press-Citizen
December 24, 2006
[Note: This material is copyright
by the
Press-Citizen, 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 Iowa
City Press-Citizen.]
In a short
telephonic meeting Monday, the Iowa state Board of Regents announced that
College of Dentistry Dean David Johnsen -- the longest serving dean at
the University of Iowa -- will lead a new, smaller committee to look for
a new UI president. Although participants on warring sides of this year's
$200,000-plus failed search process praised Johnsen's qualifications, the
manner in which Johnsen was chosen gave little hope that the search process
would be more open than in the past. Most of the conversations concerning
the search leadership took place over e-mail exchanges in the days before
the meeting. Although experts say that such e-mail conversations do not
break the letter of Iowa's Open Meeting Laws, they do break the spirit.
If the Board of Regents wants to improve its reputation for secrecy and
distrust -- the Press-Citizen, for example, filed suit against the regents
Thursday challenging the legality of the board's week-long rolling meeting
-- it needs to have its discussions out in the open as much as possible.