Faculty members are searching for answers after some cases in which the University of Iowa has hired new employees without conducting formal searches.

UI President Bruce Harreld announced Cheryl Reardon’s hiring as the chief human-resources officer and associate vice president last week.

Reardon, who has served the UI for 25 years, led the 18-member Talent@Iowa task force, which was responsible for evaluating the efficiency of the Human Resources Department. The panel recommended in its final report in August that Human Resources restructure and report directly to the President’s Office.

“I am confident [Reardon] will enhance the role of [Human Resources] by engaging campus leaders, improving the use of metrics to shape strategy, and strengthening the relationship between the UI and [the UI Hospitals & Clinics],” Harreld said in a press release.

Jeneane Beck, the UI assistant vice president for Communication & Marketing, noted Reardon’s 25 years of experience with the university as a reason she was selected for the position.

“She has routinely stepped up when asked and I think the president wanted to reward her for that work,” she said.

History Professor Katherine Tachau, the president of the UI chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said she supports the hiring of Reardon, with whom she had previously worked on the Faculty Senate and considers a friend.

“I have no doubt she has the qualifications to do the job,” she said.

Despite her faith in Reardon’s ability to do the job well, Tachau expressed discontent with the way Reardon was hired.

“The people who are going to have to apply affirmative action, equal-opportunity rules should definitely be hired by an affirmative action, equal-opportunity search,” she said. “We will never know whether there are other people who are as qualified or more qualified.”

Tachau described the current processes for affirmative action, equal-opportunity searches as “cumbersome.” The task force said in its final report that departments were slow in hiring, resulting in the loss of good candidates. The group hopes to change this process.

Tachau said the inefficiency of the process isn’t the only problem she has seen when the UI fills positions without searches.

The AAUP sanctioned the university this past summer after disapproving of the way the state Board of Regents conducted the search for former UI President Sally Mason’s successor, which resulted in the hiring of Harreld.

In light of the sanction, Tachau said, she views the process behind Reardon’s hiring to be “a lack of appreciation of the values of shared governance and open searches.”

“I presume that Mr. Harreld had gotten to know her somewhat through the work of her task force, and the way he made a decision was simpler, but it’s not consonant of academic shared governance,” she said.

To fill job openings at the UI, Beck said, officials can either conduct an internal or external search or request the search process be waived.

“In this case, the best option was to waive, and it’s used sparingly,” she said. “It’s used less than 4 percent of the time.”

Tachau said she has seen a growing tendency for administrators to be hired without a search since Mason became UI president.

Senior Vice President of Finance & Operations Rod Lehnertz was part of the 4 percent hired without a search. Tachau said he was transitioned from an interim vice president to a permanent administrator once Harreld was hired.

“It’s a difference between an administration that thinks of this as their university to direct rather than thinking of themselves as servants of the actual university to faculty and students,” she said.