Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA
11-20-06
Vilsack: Refocus on finding best candidate
Regents search controversy calls for a step back
By: Rod Boshart - The Gazette
DES MOINES, IA - Gov. Tom Vilsack is asking everyone involved in the
controversy surrounding the process of selecting a new president of the
University of Iowa to “take a step back” and refocus on the goal of finding the
best candidate for the job.
“I think we need to take a breather, take a step back, sort of evaluate the
process and figure out where we go from here so that we make sure that
whatever the process is, it is a process that insures that the very best person is
selected,” the governor said.
Vilsack was responding to concerns raised by last week’s abrupt and secretive
action by the state Board of Regents to call off the search for a new UI chief in a
process that some contend at a minimum violated the spirit of the state’s openmeetings law.
The regents decided, on a 6-2 vote last Friday, to reject the four candidates
recommended to the board for the UI presidency, scrap the current search
committee and launch a new search.
“Obviously, I don’t know all the details of the particular meeting,” Vilsack said
today. “I do know that there were four lawyers involved in giving advice and
direction at the time that the meeting took place.
“My bottom line is this – I think I share the goal that every single Iowan has,
which is to have the very best president selected for the University of Iowa,” he
said. “It is a very important aspect of our educational system and it’s clearly an
important asset to us in terms of our economy. So whatever is done, we need to
make sure that we all have the goal of finding the very best person for the job.”
Vilsack praised the regents’ past work in landing quality presidents at Iowa
State University and the University of Northern Iowa. Based on that track
record, he said he has confidence that a top person will be hired at the University
of Iowa if the board, the university community and the state work together.
Vilsack pointed to a New York Times story today about university president
salaries and notes that two of the nation’s top-paid academic leaders formerly
held similar posts in Iowa – University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman
in Iowa City and Purdue University President Martin Jischke in Ames.
“The compensation level for those two individuals are significantly higher than
what we are currently paying our presidents and that may put us at a competitive
disadvantage,” Vilsack said.
“So as we look at this effort to try to attract the brightest and best, I think we
have to recognize the nature of competition and we have to be up to that
competition,” he added. “We certainly have recognized that with some of our
coaches, we need to do it with our university presidents.”
Asked if any changes should be contemplated regarding the current makeup of
the regents, Vilsack said “ I have no further appointment authority and obviously
the governor-elect is going to have an opportunity to make a multitude of
appointments which I respect. We’re advising him on all of the openings that will
need to be filled come March and I’m sure that he will fill them.”
Vilsack chose not to seek re-election to a third term and voters selected
Democratic Secretary of State Chet Culver to succeed Vilsack in mid-January.
Culver said he is still in the transition process and has not focused in on specific
appointment decisions yet.
“I’m going to be making all sorts of decisions relating to appointments, directors,
boards, commissions – I’m looking forward to putting together the best possible
team that we can assemble and that may or may not involve changes at the
Board of Regents,” he said. “That will all come over the coming weeks and
months.”
Asked if he had concerns about last week’s development or the open-meetings
process, Culver said “I am hoping to get access to all of the information available
related to both the search and the open-records situation. I’ll be meeting with the
governor later today and perhaps it is something that we’ll discuss.”