Recent UI provost search cost about $13,000

IOWA CITY - The University of Iowa's recent search for a new provost cost about $13,000, much less than the previous provost search at the university, according to information released by UI officials Thursday.

The total search cost was $12,968.18. The bulk of the costs were for advertising - $5,658 - and travel and meal costs for on-campus interviews with the finalists - $4,132.53. Another $2,029.65 was spent on video conferencing for interviews and $1,148 was paid for meals and room rental for search committee meetings.

UI officials released the information to The Gazette and other media Thursday in response to open records requests.

UI Spokesman Tom Moore said the two biggest reasons for the lower cost of the search this time is that the first round of interviews were conducted via video conferencing rather than in-person at a site off campus, and because a search firm was not used in this search.

Among the 21 applicants for the job, only one was a woman, officials said. All three of the finalists were men.

And of those applicants who identified their race, 11 identified as white, four identified as Asian and the remainder gave no information about their race.

Barry Butler, the former UI College of Engineering dean who had been serving as interim provost, was chosen as the UI provost last month. Butler, 53, was one of three finalists to interview on campus this spring. He will earn $375,000 in the job, succeeding Wallace Loh, who left last fall to become president at the University of Maryland. The previous search that resulted in Loh's hiring several years ago cost $56,000.