University of Iowa names first public safety director candidate

IOWA CITY - The University of Iowa this week unveiled its first of four candidates to direct the UI Department of Public Safety, a position that has been open since the former director retired last year and his interim replacement was demoted amid controversy.

Marc Cossich, executive director of public safety and chief of police at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, visited campus Tuesday and Wednesday as a finalist for the job. The other finalists are scheduled to visit Monday and Tuesday next week; May 9 and 10; and May 12 and 13, according to Hayley Bruce, with the UI Office of Strategic Commnication.

The names of each finalist will be announced before his or her visit, and Bruce said the university hopes to hire a new director before the end of the budget year in June.

Cossich, who has extensive professional training and teaching experience, has spent most of his career in the south or southeast, earning a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1988, a certificate of criminal justice education from the University of Virginia in 1994, and a master's degree in criminal justice from the University of Texas in 2000, according to his resume. He also graduated from the FBI National Academy Quantico in Virginia in 1994.

In his current role, which he has held since 2001, Cossich oversees all public safety aspects for the campus community of 15,000 - 5,000 of whom live on campus. He oversees 50 full-time law enforcement personnel and 20 part-time employees, according to his resume.

His experience includes oversight before and during hurricanes Rita and Ike, creating and managing on-campus shelter for more than 1,500 evacuees from the Louisiana and Texas gulf coast.

A person chosen to fill the UI assistant vice president and director of public safety position would need to provide 'vision, leadership, and management” over a public safety program 'dedicated to the 24-hour, year-found safety and protection of approximately 32,000 students, over 22,000 faculty and staff, thousands of daily visitors and guests, including patients and visitors to UI Health Care facilities.”

The director, who would report to Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Rod Lehnertz, would oversee about 75 employees, including 25 police officers and 19 security officers.

The department's former director Chuck Green officially retired in January 2015, and David Visin was appointed interim director in his place. Because the UI administration was undergoing significant change at the time, including in the university president position, Visin held that interim role for more than a year - until March, when he was replaced amid controversy.

Lehnertz on March 4 replaced Visin with Lucy Wiederholt - a 30-year veteran who had served as associate director and UI police chief since 2010 - after news broke of Visin's alleged attempts to interfere with a Johnson County Sheriff's Office investigation of his stepson over the summer.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness met with Visin and Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek to discuss the June 25 incident, during which Visin is accused of driving his stepson, Sean Crane, away from authorities who were investigating him for a hit and run. According to an incident report, Visin refused to stop when a deputy called his cellphone and asked him to pull over.

Lyness spoke with Lehnertz in July about the incident, according to emails obtained by The Gazette, but she declined to file charges against Visin. Lehnertz said Visin also independently disclosed the incident to his superiors, and administrators did not remove him from his leadership position because, 'There were no legal actions or university policies violated.”

The decision to replace Visin at the helm of the department came after news of the allegations broke and 'to allow the UI Department of Public Safety to remain focused on the work of creating a safe environment for our students, faculty, and staff,” Lehnertz said in a statement at the time.