44 candidates so far seek University of Iowa presidency

IOWA CITY - With just days until the deadline for submitting applications to become the next University of Iowa president, 44 candidates have done so already and at least six more are expected by Monday.

Laurie Wilder, president of Parker Executive Search, said some potential prospects could submit at the very last minute - or even after - due to confidentiality concerns that their names might go public.

The presidential search committee's 21 members met Thursday and will meet again Tuesday - the day after the application deadline - to review names, discuss applications and whittle down the list of prospects to a top eight or 10 they want to invite for initial interviews Aug. 11 and 12.

The Board of Regents has said names won't be made public until three or four top prospects are invited to campus in early September.

But Wilder said even that level of potential disclosure has some prospects wary of entering the candidate pool.

'We talk to the search chair on a daily basis about a couple of candidates for who confidentiality is so critical to them that we are working through that,” she said.

She warned the committee that confidentiality concerns also might explain why some candidates have included a 'letter of interest” and others have not.

So she asked committee members not to hold that against candidates and stressed, 'The search is never over until it's over.”

Even Monday's application deadline is flexible, she said.

'The last thing you want to do is lose someone based on timing,” she said.

When committee members asked about doing their own Google searches of candidates, Wilder warned them to be cautious and avoid things like Facebook and Twitter that cannot be verified.

Although she didn't share details about the quality of the candidates in the UI presidency pool, search committee chair and interim UI President Jean Robillard said he's pleased.

'Honestly,” he said, 'If we can attract some of these people here, this university will do very very very well.”