June 18, 2013

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Regents elect Rastetter as president

June 5, 2013 By
Bruce Rastetter

Bruce Rastetter

The board which oversees the three state-supported universities, elected new leadership today at its meeting in Iowa City. The Board of Regents elected Bruce Rastetter of Alden to serve out the term presidentdial term of former president Craig Lang who failed to win enough votes in the Iowa Senate to remain on the board.

Rastetter had been the president pro-tem and became the interim president after Lang left the board. Rastetter was the focus of an ethics complaint filed last June by the group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, which claimed he Rastetter used his position on the Board of Regents to advance a business deal in Tanzania involving Iowa State University and his agribusiness company, AgriSol Energy.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board voted last August to unanimously to dismiss the complaint against Rastetter.The board also elected Katie Mulholland of Marion to serve out Rastetter’s term as president pro-tem. The terms of the board’s leaders run for two years and the current terms will expire in June of 2014.

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Governor not sure Board of Regents nominees will win Senate confirmation

March 30, 2013 By

Governor Terry Branstad is conceding two of the men he’s asked to serve on the board the governs the state universities face long odds. Board of Regents president Craig Lang, nominated for another six-year term, and construction company executive Robert Cramer need to get “yes” voted from 34 of the 50 members of the Iowa Senate to be confirmed for the job.

Branstad was asked at an event Friday if they will get enough votes. “I hope so, you know we have a very high standard in Iowa. You can be confirmed for the United States Supreme Court in Washington by a bare majority in the United States Senate,” Branstad replied.

He said it takes a constitutional two-thirds majority vote in Iowa to confirm someone and if people are absent, it’s the same as no vote. “It’s a very high standard here in Iowa.” Lang and Cramer faced criticism from Democrats on the Senate Education Committee which sent their nominations to the full Senate without a recommendation they be approved.

Branstad says politics has led to nominees being blocked from the Board of Regents in the past. “Marvin Pommerantz, one of our finest regents was rejected when he was reappointed — I think for no valid reason. We saw the same thing happen with David Fisher. This kind of partisan politics has no place in Iowa,” Branstad said.

Pommerantz and Fisher’s nominations were both blocked during Branstad’s first stint as governor. Branstad says Lang has done a lot of good things as president of the board, including the hiring of new presidents at Iowa State and UNI, and the effort to gain more funding for UNI from legislators.

He says Cramer’s construction background would be important to the board. “I chose them specifically because of their experience and because of their talent and ability, and I would hope that the Senate would take that into consideration through the process of confirmation,” Branstad said.

Senate Democrats met in private this week to discuss Lang and Cramer. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs was asked by a reporter if the two nominees lack the votes to be confirmed.

“I will talk to the governor…and let him decide what he wants to do based on the information I give him,” Gronstal said. When a reporter suggested it “sounds doubtful” Lang and Cramer will get confirmed, Gronstal replied: “Perhaps to you.”

Gronstal refused to speculate further. A third nominee for the Board of Regents, Dr. Subhash Sahai of Webster City is a Democrat, and is expected to win confirmation.

Radio Iowa’s O.Kay Henderson also contributed to this story.

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Regents fill out membership on the Transparency Task Force

March 13, 2013 By

The Board of Regents approved the membership of its Transparency Task Force today during their meeting in Ames. Regents president, Craig Lang, asked for the creation of the task force to address the concerns about the release of information from the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

The task force will include state Senator Jeff Danielson, a Democrat from Cedar Falls, who has been critical of the regents in recent weeks and pushed a bill that he says would force them to be more open. Republican Peter Cownie of West Des Moines will represent the Iowa House on the comittee.

Six of the other task force members represent the three state schools, the Board of Regents and the governor’s office. Jack Lashier of Des Moines, the director of the Iowa Hall of Pride, was added as a citizen member.

The board approved a charge for the task force that says it is to “recommend best practices for responding to public information requests and to “recommend best practices for access to information of interest to Iowans.” The Transparency Task Force will hold its first meeting on April fifth in Des Moines.

 

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Bill would put restrictions on the Board of Regents

February 20, 2013 By

A state senator from Cedar Falls is pushing a bill that he says would force the Iowa Board of Regents to be more open and accountable. The bill, introduced by Democrat Jeff Danielson, would prohibit the board and its staff from political activities or to take a side on issues subject to legislative debate.

Keith Saunders, with the Board of Regents, believes there are some problems with the proposal. “It shouldn’t be a prerequisite for public service that a citizen gives up their first amendment rights to petition their government and that’s really what this is,” Saunders says.

Critics of the bill also say it’s unfair to restrict the Board of Regents without doing the same for all boards and commissions in the state. Republican Senator Jack Whitver of Ankeny says while he appreciates transparency of state government, the bill could duplicate work already being done.

“I understand that the Regents have already set up a task force to address this issue,” Whitver said. “Anytime we can get something done without passing legislation, adding to our multi-volume code book, it’s a good thing.”

The bill would also create a Regent seat for a faculty member of the universities and any board proposal that costs $100,000 or more would require a public hearing. It would also require the Regents to hold public forums in six geographic regions quarterly, with each board meeting to include 30 minutes for public comment.

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Advocates for the blind not happy with state plan to merge services

February 15, 2013 By

The National Federation of the Blind (NFBI) in Iowa has issued a position statement saying the organizations is not in favor of the proposal by the Board of Regents to combine the services given to blind and deaf students. The Board of Regents voted on February sixth to give preliminary approval to the recommendation of a study committee to create five regional centers to serve both blind and deaf students.

NFBI president, Michael Barber, says advocates for the blind have several issues with the proposal. “The first concern of course is, whenever programs for the blind — no matter what they are for adults or for children — get merged with anything else, it’s been our experience that programs for the blind take a back seat to the other programs. And that’s just been a longstanding experience,” Barber says.

The regional proposal would keep the school for the deaf in Council Bluffs and school for the blind in Vinton as two of the regional centers while adding three new centers. Barber says NFBI is concerned that Patrick Clancy who oversaw the school for the blind, was also named superintendent of the school for the deaf and the merger of services proceeded.

“I guess we’re just concerned about the way that this was done,” Barber says. “We just kind of thought that the Board of Regents had already made up their mind that this was going to be merged, and that was the way it was gonna be, and that was the way it looked to us.”

Barber acknowledges the NFBI had a representative on the committee during the five-month process that led to selecting recommendation for the regional service concept. Barber says the group did not get on the agenda for the February sixth Regent’s meeting and then were denied an opportunity to speak before the board voted to move ahead with the pilot for the proposal.

“Keep in mind that this is an open meeting, it was a public meeting, and yet we consumers were not allowed to make public comment. We take umbrage with at that, we’re not happy with that, we think it’s a very questionable practice. We are going to be looking into that, because we do not think consumers should be treated this way by a public body,” Barber says.

He says the NFBI would like to see the issue go in a whole new direction. “We want the education of blind students to be taken away from the Board of Regents and given to the Department of Education. We feel that they are the ones who would really would be better suited for this,” according to Barber. “The Board of Regents, they do a great job with higher education. They are not experts in programs for the blind,or for the deaf for that matter.”

Barber says he his organization will pursue the plan to move the oversight of blind students.

“We’ve already talked to the governor and told him what are intentions are. And I’m not saying that we have his full support right now, because I can’t say that. But he knows that we’re dissatisfied and he knows what our plans are. I have talked to the governor about this,” Barber says.

The Regents directed Superintendent Clancy to proceed with setting up a pilot program to test the regional concept for service to blind and deaf students and gave him a deadline of no later than September. The committee reports the regional plan would eventually save money in providing services for blind and deaf students in the state.

Board of Regents Executive Director Robert Donley sent Radio Iowa this statement in reply to NFBI’s concerns:

“The Board of Regents appreciated the thoughtful comments made by Michael Barber on behalf the Iowa chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. The Board approved the recommendations of the Regents Feasibility Study and Planning Committee which represented all key stakeholders from the deaf and hard of hearing, and vision-impaired and blind communities. The Committee gathered information from public hearings throughout the state, as well as respected national experts. The Board unanimously approved the recommendations from the study and is very proud of the advances we have made in the services that benefit these two communities under the leadership of Superintendent Patrick Clancy.”

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New UNI president hopes to raise awareness of the school

February 7, 2013 By

 

William Ruud was named the new UNI President Thursday.

William Ruud was named the new UNI President Thursday.

The new University of Northern Iowa president will move to the Cedar Falls campus from Pennsylvania. The Board of Regents met today and selected from two finalist.

Regent Nicole Carroll announced the selection after a closed-door discussion among the board. “At this time I would move to approve the selection of Dr. William Ruud to serve as the President of the University of Northern Iowa at a salary of 340-thousand (dollars), effective June first 2013,” Carroll says.

Ruud is currently the president of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. He was selected over the other finalist, Michael Wartell, former chancellor of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Ruud talked with the media shortly after the board approved hiring him. “It is absolutely my pleasure to accept the opportunity to be the 10th president of the University of Northern Iowa. I’m excited,” Ruud said. Ruud says his goal is to increase awareness of the school.

“I really look forward to working with the Board of Regents, the faculty, staff, the students, the alumni, the community of Cedar Falls/Waterloo, and the entire State of Iowa,” Ruud says. “To not only make the University of Northern Iowa a greater better place to be, but to make higher education known in the state of Iowa, throughout the United States, throughout North America, and clearly throughout the world.”

He will replace Ben Allen who is retiring. Allen faced criticism and concerns on and off campus over budget cutbacks he made to deal with the down economy and lower state aid. Ruud was asked about how he will heal some of the wounds that remain on campus.

“I think the issue is, is to have over the next four or five months some good conversations with the current administration, to have some good conversations with the current leadership, the faculty and staff,” according to Ruud. “But as I said in my interview, I want to listen. I had a supply sergeant in the United States Army that once told me ‘you got two eyes, you got two ears, you got one mouth, use them proportionately.’ It’s still true today. That was 35 years ago.”

Regents president pro-tem Bruce Rastetter says one factor favoring Ruud is that he is currently a president of a school that is a lot like UNI. “He’s been very active in fundraising, which we think is important for UNI. And also in growing, and we be he can help grow that university and focus on the areas that need to be,” Rastetter said.

“We had two really great candidates and we spent a long time deliberating, but we are excited his enthusiasm, his knowledge, his vision for education.” Northern Iowa’s faculty is represented by a union, and Rastetter says Ruud has experience with unions at his current school.

“It’s very similar, there’s a number of unions in Shippensburg as well, so he used to dealing with a faculty union. And he clearly presented that to us in a very positive way,” according to Rastetter. “We look forward to him after a tough year and a half, to continuing on and work with the faculty, and also to grow the university. We’ve got a great university and that image needs to be raised to attract more students.”

The board approved a three-year contract for Ruud.

Audio:  William Ruud’s comments. 16:00

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Regents approve concept of regional centers for blind and deaf student services

February 7, 2013 By

The Board of Regents gave approval Wednesday to the concept recommended for reorganizing the schools for the deaf and blind. Patrick Clancy, the Superintendent of the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs, told the board the idea is to create a regional system that will provide more access to services across the state.

“The committee considered what makes up quality programs, education services for the blind and for deaf in Iowa,” Clancy explained. “Looked at the population and the size of the population served and where they are at, invited in national input into the process. Contacted other service programs from other states to be able to get input. Examined outcomes of our strategic initiatives with both of the two special school programs.”

The preferred plan calls for five regional centers, keeping the School for the Deaf and the School for the Blind in Vinton as two of the centers. “It is really about that regional programs do serve an important purpose for the future in terms of meeting those preferred future documents, in terms of a continuum of services for the deaf and blind that is richer and more full than the service delivery that is currently in place in Iowa in terms of looking to the future,” Clancy says.

The move to regional centers is projected to eventually save $2.4-million once implemented. Clancy told the board they will know more once they work out the final details.

“What I am asking of you at this point is that more conceptual approval of what that feasibility and planning study committee advised and recommended,” Clancy says. “And then charging me — with a group of other people — to move forward working out the details and then come back to you with a more precise plan for you to consider if that is something that we can do or should do.”

The board gave Clancy the approval to move ahead with more concrete details. The regents asked Clancy to develop a proposal for a pilot program which will include one regional center at a location to be determined to help them understand the concept.

The proposal must describe the operation of the regional center, including the value of the site selected, financial implications, and the different funding sources available for the center. The board wants the proposal no later than September 2013 for potential implementation in the 2015 fiscal year.

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