University of Northern Iowa search committee picking semifinalists

CEDAR FALLS - Members of a University of Northern Iowa presidential search committee spent hours Wednesday whittling a pool of 46 applicants to seven semifinalists.

Names of the applicants are not being publicly disclosed, and the genders and nature of professional experiences of the semifinalists was not immediately known.

AGB Search, the firm hired to conduct the presidential search, will check the candidates' backgrounds and references and invite them to off-site interviews Nov. 11 and 12 at an undisclosed location.

Following those interviews, the search committee will choose three to four finalists to bring to the Cedar Falls campus between Nov. 28 and Dec. 1 or 2. During those visits, the candidates will be introduced publicly and participate in open forums, which will include a time for questions and answers.

Those visits will span two days for each finalist and include meals with search committee members and the university's vice presidents. The visits also will include meetings with community members, athletics leaders, executive team members, faculty and staff leaders, student representatives and the entire search committee.

Of the 46 applicants for the UNI search - the same number that applied last year for the vacant University of Iowa presidency - 37 were men and nine were women. That means about 20 percent of the UNI applicants were female, compared with 8 percent in last year's UI search.

More details about the total UNI applicant pool - including diversity in ethnicity and professional background - weren't immediately made public, as Board of Regents President Pro Tem and committee co-chair Katie Mulholland said many of the candidates were known only on paper.

In seeking applications, AGB Search initiated an email outreach to more than 4,740 recipients. A total 63 nominators provided 76 names - with six duplicate nominations - and search officials contacted all who were nominated.

The search is seeking to replace former UNI President Bill Ruud, who left the institution in July after three years to become president of the much smaller private Marietta College in Ohio.

Many have been watching this presidential search closely after controversy erupted following the Board of Regents' decision in September 2015 to hire former IBM executive Bruce Harreld for the UI presidency. That hire came despite widespread criticism of his candidacy and promoted faculty and student leaders to issue votes of no confidence in the board.