Dive Brief:
- Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa have come out in support of University of Iowa faculty and student no-confidence votes that followed the appointment of businessman J. Bruce Harreld as UI’s next president.
- KCRG reports that the Iowa chapters of the American Association of University Professors have argued the board of regents’ actions were in violation of shared governance principles.
- The University of Northern Iowa’s statement of support called out the board of regents for acting too quickly in candidate selection, for providing a candidate pool that lacked diversity, for disregarding the credentials necessary to run a university, and for ignoring faculty opinion.
Dive Insight:
J. Bruce Harreld has had a successful career running businesses and corporations, but his academic experience is limited to time spent as a business school lecturer. The other three finalists in the board of regents’ search all had traditional backgrounds, coming up through the ranks of academic administration. Before the board appointed Harreld, both students and faculty came out against the choice — though opposition was not unanimous. Harreld starts Nov. 2 with a salary of $590,000.