Lawmaker plans bill requiring elections for Board of Regents

Out of concern the Board of Regents has become too political, one Iowa lawmakers is planning to propose a bill that would require regents to be elected, rather than appointed.

Sen. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, said board decisions and maneuvers in recent months and years have him seeking a change. His proposal would require voters to elect six regents to represent specific Iowa regions and three regents to represent the state at-large.

Right now, the governor appoints the Board of Regents' nine members, and each appointee must be confirmed by a two-thirds Senate majority, according to Iowa Code. The governor also can remove members of the board for cause, with Senate confirmation.

'The board is far too politicized, and that's not solely based on one party or the other,” Jacoby said. 'Both have made it more political than it ought to be.”

Regents are appointed to staggered six-year terms on the board, which governs the state's five public educational institutions - including University of Iowa, Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, and two special schools.

Jacoby said some perceive that the regents favor some institutions over others and treat the university presidents differently. Jacoby mentioned UI President Sally Mason's retirement announcement last week as an example, saying he believes she has been 'unfairly scrutinized” by the regents.

'That happened with past presidents at Iowa State and UNI, too,” Jacoby said.

He's concerned some regents might allow their decisions to be influenced by the person who appointed them or by the fact they were appointed. Jacoby said he's meeting with Republicans and Democrats on the issue and plans to draft a bill this week.

'The question is, ‘How do we get crony politics out of the Board of Regents?'” he said.

Under Iowa Code, no more than five members of the Board of Regents can be of the same political party. Gender balance is required. One member must be a student at one of the institutions.

The potential loss of diversity is one criticism some people have with the notion of elected regents.

'I think that's a significant risk, frankly,” Regent Bob Downer said. 'It would be very difficult to have gender and partisan balance if you had elected representatives.”

Downer, an Iowa City-based Republican who has been a regent since 2003 and was appointed twice by different Democratic governors, said he can remember just one time during his tenure that the board voted on along party lines. In that case, Downer said, he voted with the other Republicans but said his decision wasn't affected by his appointment.

'Even though I had been reappointed by Gov. Culver, I had no problem casting that vote at all,” he said. 'I have not felt, in my own personal case, that there was a presence lurking of the governor who had appointed me.”

Downer said he's spoken with board members in states that have elected regents, including Nebraska, and has heard concerns around the high price of campaigning and the impact that can have on who runs.

'I just think that it would result in a board that might not be as well-informed as the board we have today,” he said. 'It goes without saying that I've had my share of disagreements with those on the board presently. But I do feel they are well-informed.”

The University of Colorado System, which includes three accredited universities and four campuses, is governed by a Board of Regents consisting of nine members. Seven of them are elected from the state's congressional districts and two are elected from the state at-large.

That election process was written into the Colorado constitution in 1876. CU Regent Michael Carrigan said he thinks there are benefits to the model.

'Because we are a separately-elected board, we are independent of other elected leaders,” Carrigan said. 'We don't take orders from the governor or the legislature, and that has allowed us to take bold steps.”

The effort that goes into winning an election makes each CU regent engaged with the communities they serve, Carrigan said. And, as far as diversity on the board, he said the CU board currently includes five republicans, four democrats, three women, and two Latinos - although there are no party or gender requirements.

In a statement provided to The Gazette on Monday, Jimmy Centers, communications director for the governor's office, said Gov. Terry Branstad 'believes the current system of selecting regents, in which the governor's appointee is required to be confirmed by a two-thirds vote of the Iowa Senate, is satisfactory.”

The requirement of senate confirmation is why Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, said he thinks Iowa's current system works well.

'Even though we can't argue there are politics involved in the appointments by the governor, the Senate takes the nominations very seriously,” Bisignano said. 'I think it keeps the regents in check, knowing they have to be confirmed. That may eliminate politics in their actions.”

Moving to an elected Board of Regents, in Bisignano's view, could mean external influence into the process - in the form of out-of-state campaign contributions - and 'that would probably be a very unwise course.”

'That, in my opinion, would be devastating to higher education in Iowa,” he said.