Board of Regents and Bruce Harreld

The regents are twisting themselves in knots to legitimize their selection of Bruce Harreld as the next UI president. Just consider the comments some of them made in the Sept. 26 Press-Citizen. In Ames on July 30, Regent President Bruce Rastetter arranged two meetings between Harreld and different pairs of regents. First, Harreld met with Mary Andringa and Larry McKibben, neither of whom were on the Presidential Search Committee and therefore had no official recruitment role. Later in the day, Harreld met with two regents who were on the Search Committee, Katie Mulholland and Milt Dakovich. One has to ask why Rastetter, also a Search Committee member, introduced all four regents to Harreld instead of just the two directly involved in recruiting candidates for the regents as a body to consider?

Why should Andringa and McKibben meet with Harreld since they weren’t officially part of the recruitment process? What additional advantage did this meeting give to Harreld? After her meeting, Andringa admits that she wrote Harreld an email that “strongly encouraged” him to apply for the presidency. Did she strongly encourage anyone else to apply?

Defending his choice of Harreld, McKibben claimed that during their meeting, “he did more talking than Harreld” and that the meeting consisted mainly of Harreld asking questions about the position of president, which he and Andringa answered “in detail.” Rastetter confirmed that the meetings were designed for Harreld to “learn more about the position and what would be expected.” July 30 was the day before the application deadline. So Harreld benefited from these special meetings with regents since they persuaded him to apply for the job.

Of course, the regents’ attempts to justify their prior connections to Harreld serve instead to expose what is obvious to all: Harreld isn’t prepared for the job, and the regents have known it all along. None of the other candidates — two provosts and a college president — needed special Q & A sessions to instruct them in what a university president does. Harreld’s selection, against the advice of practically the entire UI community, is therefore demonstrably illogical. It’s also willful. Mulholland is quoted as saying “shared governance is really different from shared decision-making.” Oh really? I recommend she Google the word so she, like the rest of us, understands that “governance” refers to “the processes of interaction and decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem.” It’s disturbing to learn that regents don’t know much about their jobs, either.

No matter how much they claim otherwise, the regents hired Harreld on their own initiative from start to finish. Their own words reveal that truth. They’re now straining to make it appear as if they disinterestedly followed due process. They’re not fooling anyone. Just listen to what they say. They’ve condemned themselves out of their own mouths.

Phil Beck

Vote Tim Conroy for Iowa City Council   

I’m writing to endorse Tim Conroy for an at-large seat on the Iowa City City Council in November. I’ve known Tim and his family for a good number of years and am certain he has every characteristic we need to serve our city well. You do not have to have decades under your belt to be highly intellectually capable (retaining common sense), articulate, experienced, and caring of all kinds of people. Tim is a consummate professional. He also serves as a volunteer for many community causes and does not shy away from pressing social issues. Even though it is to be expected when considering the history of this place, Iowa City’s continued ability to grow in stimulating ways — mixing and involving diverse groups, bringing about international as well as national, state, and local achievements in the health sciences, the arts, entrepreneurialism, and in unlimited other ways — I continue nonetheless to be amazed and thrilled at what’s “coming next” for Iowa City. We have a distinguished and lively past, but a promising future that earlier citizens could only have dreamed of. As a member of our highly regarded City Council, Tim Conroy will be the kind of person we need to represent us well as we open our eyes to move ahead while cherishing and preserving our past. I urge you to vote for Tim and a fresh approach.

Alan Swanson