Time for regents to admit errors

    The American Association of University Professors has sanctioned UI for the botched hiring of Bruce Harreld as president last year. Although the school will bear the burden of the sanction, the university community is not to blame. It’s entirely the fault of the state Board of Regents, which conducted a fraudulent search, pretending to choose among several candidates when in fact they had prearranged the choice of Harreld among themselves, with the complicity of Gov. Terry Branstad.

    The overwhelming majority of the university community expressed the view that Harreld was an inappropriate choice for president because of his lack of experience with, and understanding of, the basics of running an institution of higher education. The participation of school faculty and administrators was prematurely terminated; the community’s opinion ignored. The AAUP didn’t reach these conclusions arbitrarily or through some tortured interpretation of the facts. The facts are clear and the conclusion inescapable. But the regents refuse to accept it. Instead of acknowledging their mistakes, regents double down on their insistence they did nothing wrong. This is incorrect, irresponsible, and frankly, immature. The university community deserves better.

    The way forward from this point is clear. The university must do what it can to get off the list of AAUP-sanctioned schools. This effort has to begin with the regents. The AAUP’s report decried the politicization of the regents by Branstad, who has packed it with political supporters. A board of governance is supposed to represent diverse political views. Iowa’s regents are nearly all Republican (some regents changed their party affiliation to “independent” after being appointed, fooling no one).

It is imperative that the regents responsible for corrupting the presidential search, beginning with Regent President Bruce Rastetter, resign or be removed immediately. Branstad must then fill their spots with qualified leaders from outside the Republican Party. In this way only will the regents regain respectability and re-establish a relationship of trust with the university community. But none of this will happen if the regents continue to deny the truth of what occurred during the presidential search. The AAUP has told us that truth. It is now up to those responsible to admit it and accept the consequences so both the UI and the state of Iowa can move forward.

Phil Beck