Board of Regents President Sherry Bates will resign this week

URBANDALE — With more than three years left on her six-year term, Board of Regents President Sherry Bates on Monday announced plans to resign from the board Thursday — and a Republican lawmaker celebrated the opportunity for a “change in direction.”

President Pro Tem Greta Rouse also on Monday said she’ll step down from her leadership post on the nine-member board — although she’ll remain a regent through the end of her term in 2027.

“It’s time for me to step back, spend more time with my family, and allow the next generation of regent leadership to continue our good work,” outgoing President Bates said in a statement. “Iowa, Iowa State and UNI are among the best public universities in the country, and I look forward to seeing them continue to grow and excel.”

Rouse, in commenting on her leadership resignation, said she’s still committed to the board and its mission, but “leadership requires an additional time commitment.”

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“With our children still young, I want to focus on my family,” Rouse said. “Iowa’s universities inspire the next generation, drive our economy, advance research, and enrich communities across the state. Stepping down from leadership will allow me to do that while continuing to support their important work.”

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The board has called an emergency meeting for Wednesday to elect new regent leadership. And Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis — chair of the House Committee on Higher Education — issued a statement following the resignations.

“This leadership upheaval presents an opportunity to chart a new path for the Iowa Board of Regents,” Collins said. “For years now, lawmakers have called for a change in direction for not only our universities, but also the Board of Regents.

“I look forward to working with the next board president to continue to reform Iowa’s higher education system.”

Board vacancies

Having served on the board for more than a decade since 2014, Bates’ resignation leaves two holes in the board — after former regent David Barker left in October to serve as U.S. assistant secretary for postsecondary education under the Trump administration.

Gov. Kim Reynolds is responsible for appointing members to the board — which governs Iowa’s three public universities — and then a two-thirds senate majority must confirm the appointments, which are required by state law to have political and gender balance.

Before the resignations of Barker and Bates, the board had five Republicans, one Democrat, and three who identified as independents.

Barker’s departure leaves the board with four Republicans and Bates’ exit brings the independents down to two. The gender balance now sits at three men and four women.

Following Bates’ initial 2014 appointment to fill the unexpired term of Nicole Carroll, Gov. Terry Branstad reappointed her in March 2017. Reynolds reappointed her a second time in March 2023 to serve through 2029.

Bates’ board leadership began in June 2021, when she was elected president pro tem — and then reelected in 2022. Following former board President Michael Richards’ resignation in 2024, Bates stepped in as interim president — and was elected to remain in that role permanently in February 2024.

Rouse first served on the board from 2008 to 2012 as a student regent and then returned nearly a decade later with a new appointment on May 1, 2021. She was elected president pro rem in February 2024.

Higher ed spotlight

The board upheaval comes just before the start of a new Legislative session — after Republican lawmakers in the last session took a hard look at higher education, proposing dozens of pieces of legislation that could have frozen tuition, imposed new teaching restrictions on some faculty, and taken DEI prohibitions further, for example.

One measure that did pass was a bill requiring the creation of a new University of Iowa-based Center for Intellectual Freedom, charged with increasing intellectual diversity and civic education across the campus and regent system.

Approved by the Board of Regents, a newly-appointed advisory council for that center met recently to start the ball rolling on finding a permanent center director. Council members — half of whom are out-of-state faculty — also approved bylaws and designated leadership, including regent Christine Hensley.

The board over the last few years has come under growing lawmaker scrutiny for its campus’ diversity, equity and inclusion programming, staffing, and spending — and for reports of constraints on free speech at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa.

Legislators in response have openly reprimanded the board and university presidents and last session withheld any general education funding increase for the campuses.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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