What are the next steps in the University of Iowa president search?
The state Board of Regents are expecting to select a new president April 30 and make the announcement at 4 p.m. Here are the next steps in that process leading up to that date
Illustration by Paige Ho.
April 25, 2021
Iowa’s next head Hawkeye is slated to be announced later this week.
The presidential search committee will meet to discuss the four finalists for the University of Iowa presidency and campus feedback. The state Board of Regents will conduct final interviews with the candidates before the nine-member panel will make the final decision and announce the next president on Friday.
This will end the search for the next leader of the 31,000-student and 25,000-employee institution that was set in motion in October when President Bruce Harreld announced he would be retiring.
Harreld’s last day will be May 16, he announced last month, earlier than he previously indicated. Graduate College Dean John Keller will fill in as interim president until the next head Hawkeye begins.
While the new president will set their own start date, Keller previously told The Daily Iowan that start date would likely be in late summer or early fall as the school year begins.
Of the four finalists, three are women and none are racial or ethnic minorities. Of the 2015 search’s finalists — a search which led to Harreld’s selection — there were no women or people of color. Seven out of the last eight UI presidencies were preceded by an interim president, something Harreld had previously expressed he thought would be valuable to avoid in order to continue progress on campus. Some interims were in place for as long as two years.
Here are the final steps in the UI presidential search:
April 26, 5 p.m.: deadline for campus feedback via online form
April 28, 9 a.m.: University of Iowa presidential search committee meet in closed session to evaluate the four finalists. The open session portions will be live-streamed on the regents’ website
April 29-30: Regents will meet in closed session at the University of Iowa’s Levitt Center for Advancement to evaluate and interview finalists
April 30, 4 p.m.: Regents are expected to announce the next president
