The Iowa Board of Regents is set to elect a new president to the board at its meeting next Wednesday.

President Pro Tempore Sherry Bates is serving in the role after regent Michael Richards announced his resignation on Jan. 16 effective immediately. The election will occur at the regents’ office in Urbandale, Iowa, where the meeting is being held.

The elected president’s term will begin immediately and run through the remainder of Richard’s term which ends April 30.

Under Iowa Administrative Code governing the regents, a new president pro tempore will also be elected during the same election, and both will serve a two-year term starting May 1 of even number years.

If the current president pro tempore is elected to the position of president, the board will conduct an additional election to fill that position.

Richards first announced his retirement in a news release on Jan. 16, in which he said he would remain a regent until April 30, upon which he would fully resign from the board.

He thanked his fellow regents, staff, public university staff, and others he worked with during his time on the board. He called serving as a regent a “true honor and privilege,” and thanked Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and former Gov. Terry Branstad for appointing him.

Richards was first appointed to the board in May 2016 by then-Gov. Branstad, and was first appointed board president in 2017. He was reelected as president in 2018, 2020, and 2022, and Reynolds extended his stay on the board in 2021 when his term was set to expire.