Lawmaker: New law gives regents full control over Iowa State presidential search

Before regents on Monday authorized their executive director to hire a firm, form a committee and develop a timeline for the upcoming search to replace retiring Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen, one lawmaker reminded them of a new state law governing the selection process.

With passage of Senate File 2435 in the 2024 legislative session, regents get the final say not just in picking the president, but also in naming finalists they want to bring to campus and before the full board for consideration — a reversal from search norms dating back two decades.

Previously — as was the case in the selection of Iowa’s current public university presidents — a search committee of campus and community constituents was responsible for whittling down a pool of nominees and applicants to between three and five finalists. Those finalists then visited campus to meet with leaders, participate in public forums and interview with the Board of Regents — which made the final choice.

“Changes to Iowa Code Section Section 262.9, subsection 2, clarify that when electing a president of a regent university, the board may use a presidential selection committee, but only members of the Board of Regents shall serve as voting members,” Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, wrote in a letter to the board over the weekend.

“This is a significant departure from past presidential selection processes where the Board of Regents abdicated their responsibility in electing a university president, allowing candidates to be narrowed down by some of the most extreme factions of the campus community,” he wrote.

The 21-member ISU search committee that chose Wintersteen as one of four finalists in 2017 included seven faculty members who represented its seven colleges; leaders of faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate student governance groups; ISU Alumni Association and Foundation representatives; a member of the public; and four regents.

“These past processes were not only a mistake, but following such an approach in the selection of Iowa State's next president would now be illegal,” Taylor wrote. “I trust the board recognizes the legislative intent and importance of this change.”

‘A workable committee’

Board Executive Director Mark Braun — given the regents’ authorization Monday — will begin the process of advertising for, choosing and entering into an agreement with a search firm to provide consultation services for Wintersteen’s replacement.

He’ll also establish a search committee similar to the 21-member groups formed for the most recent presidential searches at ISU in 2017, the University of Iowa in 2020 and the University of Northern Iowa in 2016.

The ISU committee included four regents of the nine regents; the UI committee that nominated President Barbara Wilson included two regents; and the UNI committee that offered President Mark Nook as a finalist included four regents.

As a new board member, Regent Christine Hensley asked how much information the full board would receive throughout the search process.

“We will update the board at each meeting as we go through the process,” board President Sherry Bates said. “Once the search starts and continues, that's the search committee's purview.”

To Hensley’s question about how many people will be on this new search committee, Bates said Braun will decide — weighing all the different stakeholders and shared governance groups. “We’ll try to keep it as small as we can,” Bates said. “A workable committee.”

The last ISU search timeline in 2017 matched the search timeline before it in 2011 — holding a series of campus “listening sessions” for what community members want in a new leader and spending months compiling applications before holding semifinalist and finalist interviews about six months later.

Wintersteen timeline

Outgoing President Wintersteen suggested some version of a timeline to find her successor in her Friday retirement announcement.

“My hope is that the search process will begin very soon, and the new president will assume the role in January of 2026, whereupon I will retire,” she wrote in a letter to campus. “I will truly miss our ISU students and their creativity, excitement and potential.”

Wintersteen, 68, was hired eight years ago to replace Steven Leath — who had been chosen to lead Auburn University — making her the first female president in ISU history.

She was the only internal candidate of four finalists, having started her ISU career decades earlier in 1979 as an extension associate of integrated pest management. She earned her doctorate from ISU in 1988 and advanced through the administrative ranks — serving as dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences before president.

For the presidential search that led to her hire, the Board of Regents issued a nine-pronged charge to the search committee — including:

The three other finalists alongside Wintersteen were Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture; University of Georgia Provost Pamela Whitten; and Dale Whittaker, provost and executive vice president at the University of Central Florida.

‘Notorious debacle’

A year before Wintersteen’s appointment, the Board of Regents came under fire for its search and hire of Bruce Harreld in 2016 to become president of the UI. The committee formed for that search was disbanded after identifying finalists, and an investigation by the American Association of University Professors found regents “blatantly disobeyed” the wishes of UI faculty in hiring Harreld.

In sanctioning the university for its governing board’s disregard of faculty opinion, the AAUP stated, “In contrast to historical practice at the university, which had been to involve faculty fully in presidential searches, the board's leadership had engineered the search to identify a figure from the business world who was congenial to its image of ‘transformative leadership’.”

“Once the regents identified such a person, what followed was at best an illusion of an open, honest search,” according to the committee's report.

Before 2006, the UI tradition had been for a majority of any presidential search committee to be faculty — plus some students and staff. Only after 2006 did regents start serving on UI presidential search committees, according to the AAUP.

In that first regent-involved committee, four board members joined the 19-person committee, including then-board President Michael Gartner. Although the group identified four finalists in that search, Gartner ordered the search terminated before on-campus interviews occurred.

That compelled a meeting with the governor, who — unsuccessfully — urged the process to continue. Given the search’s failure, the UI Faculty Senate president slammed the board for a “notorious debacle” — accusing regents of misreporting, lying and “extraordinary aversion to Iowa’s tradition of open, collegial decision-making.”

Following a vote of no confidence in the board, the university formed a new search committee without a regent representative — resulting in the hire of Sally Mason, Harreld’s predecessor.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com