Search process for president questionable

To the editor:

To truly appreciate the difference in the results of a faculty driven presidential search and a Board of Regents driven search one can look at where our former presidents are today.

Hunter Rawlings headed to Cornell University as its president and is retiring as president of the Association of American Universities. David Skorton became president of Cornell and this year took over the Smithsonian Institutes. Mary Sue Coleman left UI to head the prestigious University of Michigan system and will take over as president of the AAU in June.

Tell me, Board of Regents and Gov. Terry Branstad, do you see your recent selection to head the University of Iowa ever being chosen in the future for a position of the magnitude of these former presidents, connections which honor Iowa as well? If not, you have made the wrong move, starting with the search process, and it is not one to make UI 'greater.”

Ellen Heywood

Iowa City