UI President Barbara Wilson to be formally installed on Friday

IOWA CITY — Seven months after beginning her tenure as the University of Iowa’s 22nd president, Barbara Wilson on Friday will be formally “installed” during an afternoon ceremony at Hancher Auditorium — happening in conjunction with the campus’ 175th anniversary celebration.

Among those planning to speak at the event are Wilson, Board of Regents President Michael Richards, Iowa Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, and Ted Abel, director of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute and professor in the Carver College of Medicine.

Abel plans to share insights on Wilson’s efforts to get to know her campus constituents, listen to them, and understand what drives their work.

“She shares our sense of purpose, not just academically, but also socially, that we are here to support the well-being of everyone in our university, our students, our faculty, and our staff,” Abel said in a statement.

Although here under a year, Wilson recently helped secure a $70 million donation from the Richard O. Jacobson Foundation for a new UI Health Care inpatient tower — the largest gift in university history.

“She is a president who drives these kinds of gifts,” Abel said. “From Day One, she has been seeking ways to be transformative at Iowa.”

The event also will include musical performances and will be followed by a reception celebrating Wilson — Iowa’s third female president — and the university, founded on Feb. 25, 1847, only 59 days after Iowa became a state.

Before arriving at Iowa over the summer to succeed former UI President Bruce Harreld, Wilson since 2016 had served as executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs for the University of Illinois System — encompassing more than 90,000 students across three campuses.

She also served as interim chancellor for the Urbana-Champaign campus of more than 45,000 students and nearly 2,000 tenure-track faculty.

With a bachelor’s degree in journalism, a master’s in communications arts, and a doctorate in communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wilson’s research interests include the social and psychological effects of the media.

On Sunday, following Friday’s installation, Hancher will host the university’s annual presidential lecture centered on the 175th anniversary — featuring talks from faculty scholars Craig Kletzing, physics and astronomy professor; Christopher Merrill, director of UI’s International Writing Program; and Patricia Winokur, professor of internal medicine and infectious diseases and executive dean of the Carver College of Medicine.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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