© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

AAUP Blasts Iowa Board of Regents in Report

bruce rastetter
Amy Mayer/IPR
Bruce Rastetter, President of the Iowa Board of Regents

The American Association of University Professors says its investigation of Iowa Board of Regents’ process in hiring University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld disserved the people of Iowa.

The AAUP, also a labor union, concludes the Board of Regents designed the presidential search process to prevent any meaningful faculty role in the process, acting in bad faith to other candidates. The report calls it an illusion of an honest search, manipulating to a pre-ordained result.

Despite calling the hiring process nothing less than a crude exercise in naked power, the AAUP advises taking UI President Harreld at his word to respect faculty, and lead in shared governance.            

The reports concludes by slamming the Regents, saying ‘time will tell whether the new president will grow into the position and effectively defend the institution from the worst instincts of its present governing board.’

During this River to River conversation, host Ben Kieffer talks with Michael DeCesare, who helped conduct the investigation outlined in the report and serves as chair of the Committee on College and University Governance for the AAUP.

In this broadcast, Kieffer also talks with Greg Boattenhamer, Senior Vice President of Government Relations for the Iowa Hospital Association, about the state’s efforts to make Medicaid a privately run program; and Brian Morelli of the Cedar Rapids Gazette about developments regarding the Bakken Pipeline.

During the second half of the show, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Simpson College Kedron Bardwell gives some analysis of Bob VanderPlaat’s decision to endorse republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, and we hear about a petition that’s been started to give a high school cross country runner his district title back. 

Lindsey Moon is IPR's Senior Digital Producer
Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River