Four public forums will be held in Ames next week as part of the search for a new president of Iowa State University.

Luis Rico-Gutierrez, dean of the ISU College of Design, is co-chair of the search committee. He provided an update on the committee’s work at Thursday’s meeting of the Iowa Board of Regents in Cedar Falls. “In the next two weeks, we’re in a listening mode,” Rico-Gutierrez said. “We are scheduling different venues to listen to as many people as we can.”

The 21-member committee is charged with recommending between three to five finalists to the Board of Regents. Those finalists will be invited to the Ames campus for public interviews in the fall. “The ultimate goal is to invite a very small group of viable candidates for campus interviews around the second week of October,” Rico-Gutierrez said.

The regents have scheduled a meeting for October 23 to select the next president. Steven Leath spent five year as ISU president before leaving last month to take the same position at Auburn University.

Here is the schedule for the upcoming public forums:
Monday 6/12, 1:30 p.m., in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union
Monday 6/12, 5:30 p.m., in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union
Tuesday 6/13, 8:30 a.m., in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union
Tuesday 6/13, 12:00 p.m., Design on Main, 203 Main St. in Ames