As a Hawkeye freshman 12 years ago, I went to a welcome week block party on the red-brick road passing the university president’s mansion. The University of Iowa, in my opinion, has always been creative in saying hello to those new to campus, and no one was better at the task than the man throwing the party, former UI President David Skorton.
Skorton understood the importance of interacting with the student population. During his time as the Hawkeye president, he was personable, committed to research and supportive of his academic staff. He has since left to lead Cornell University and is the current Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution — an impressive record.
The newly hired UI president has an unconventional record for the leaders of an academic institution. Bruce Harreld is a former IBM and Boston Market executive, with experience as a guest lecturer at Harvard’s Business School as his sole credential in the academic arena.
The Iowa Board of Regents has been under enormous budgetary uncertainty from the Iowa Legislature for several years to control tuition costs for students and rein in the bottom line. It seems logical that the governor-appointed board would look to the business community for a leader with experience running a multi-million/billion dollar company for new ideas to control spending and growth at the three regent school — Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa and the UI.
The outrage in Harreld’s hire partially comes from his inexperience in running an academic institution — which many professors would say is much different than running a Fortune 500 company — but mostly in the apparent lack of transparency in the hiring process.
Recently, emails released in the media have revealed Harreld took part in undisclosed meetings with several of the regents during the hiring processes and met with regents President Bruce Rastetter, UI Faculty Senate President Christina Bohannan, and interim UI President Jean Robillard in July before becoming a candidate for the presidency. The UI Faculty Senate and student leaders issued a “vote of no confidence” in the Regents due to the hiring process, which they believe was just for show. And academic leaders at UI have already issued a censure of Harreld claiming he did not disclose co-authors of papers he helped prepare, which is against the UI faculty’s ethics code.
It’s not that the Regents are trying a different route after the departure of former UI President Sally Mason that is most troubling. It’s the board’s reluctance to admit it to the people of Iowa and the UI faculty. If they want the university administration to run like a business, they should state their intentions and why it would be good for UI.
It’s true that the university environment is not always the model of practicality. Extravagant fitness centers, vast concert halls and NFL-sized football stadiums are not budget-friendly. But practicality doesn’t always breed creativity. These accommodations of our state universities’ are also an investment in our culture and society and don’t always have an immediate tangible return.
But funding the best quality research facilities, classroom technologies and amenities to improve campus life is an investment in the future. It will produce results in the long term.
Let’s give President Harreld a chance while keeping a watchful eye on the quality of academics and research at the UI. Hopefully the new neighbor on the block will be mindful of literature and medical science as well as the bottom line.
Contact Mike Mendenhall at
mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com