Only regent votes count on smaller search committee for ISU president

AMES — The Board of Regents on Monday announced the makeup of a 12-member search committee charged with helping find a successor for outgoing Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen.

Co-chairing the committee are Regent JC Risewick and Iowa State Faculty Senate President Meghan Gillette — an associate teaching professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Per a new law passed in the 2024 legislative session, only the four regents named to the ISU presidential search committee can serves as “voting members.”

“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 in May, shortly after Wintersteen announced her retirement after eight years.

Including those regents and two ISU alum, only half the committee has current campus ties, including three ISU professors and the presidents of ISU Student Government, ISU Graduate and Professional Student Senate, and ISU Professional and Scientific Council.

Of the four regents assigned to the group, three are registered Republicans — Risewick, Robert Cramer, and Greta Rouse — and the fourth, newly-appointed Kurt Tjaden, is identified as an independent in the state’s Talent Bank system.

By restricting voting power to just the regent committee members, the new law gives the board final say not only who of the finalists is chosen for the job — but who of the larger applicant pool gets to be a finalist.

The practice had been to give the search committee sole discretion to choose the finalists — isolating the board’s power to deciding between those three to four names.

Past committees

Search committees formed for the regent system’s last three presidential searches were much bigger than the 12-member group assembled for Wintersteen’s replacement in that they each involved 21 representatives.

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The University of Iowa’s 21-person committee that in 2020 found President Barbara Wilson had two regents and 16 representatives with campus ties — including 10 professors and three students.

The ISU 21-member committee that in 2017 identified Wintersteen as a top prospect included eight faculty, two students, and four regents.

And the University of Northern Iowa 21-person search committee that brought Mark Nook to Cedar Falls in 2016 involved 16 with campus ties, plus four regents and a union representative.

That UNI search was the last time a regent co-chaired a presidential search committee — with the ISU search co-chaired by a dean and member of the public and the UI search co-chaired by top UI administrators.

In announcing the new ISU search committee Monday, the Board of Regents Office said the group is charged with "identifying finalists for the board’s consideration to become the next president of ISU.“

“The selection of the next president at Iowa State is a critical task, and we take this role seriously,” Risewick said in a statement. “We look forward to screening applications and forwarding finalists to the full Board of Regents.”

His co-chair Gillette said, “Over the coming months, our group will work together to find outstanding candidates to be ISU’s president.

“I look forward to working with the committee as we help find the next great leader of Iowa State.”

Alum, donors

The two Iowa State alum on the new presidential search committee are retired Wells Fargo Mortgage Company Co-President Cara Heiden and Roger Underwood, founder of Becker Underwood and Riverwood Holdings.

Both have been key donors to the university — with Heiden serving as chair of the ISU Foundation Board of Directors from 2005 to 2007 and Underwood serving on the ISU Foundation board and as an ISU Foundation governor.

Underwood and his wife Connie gave $1.6 million to established the Ag Entrepreneurship Initiative — in addition to gifts supporting ISU athletics, scholarships and educational funds in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Heiden — as retired co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage — multiple times was named one of U.S. Banker magazine’s “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking.”

In 2011, Heiden served on the ISU presidential search committee that hired Steven Leath as the 15th ISU president.

Both have given thousands in political donations, according to the Iowa Ethics Campaign and Disclosure Board and federal campaign data.

Heiden has given $22,500 to Gov. Kim Reynolds since 2017 and Underwood has given more than $110,000 over the years to Republicans like Attorney General Brenna Bird, Sen. Joni Ernst, Rep. Ashley Hinson, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Rep. Randy Feenstra, and more than $25,000 to Gov. Reynolds.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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