The president of the University of Iowa testified at the statehouse today, and tossed aside suggestions he had a hand in forcing the resignation of three members of the board the governs Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I. University of Iowa president David Skorton lauded the cost-cutting efforts launched by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Chairman and C-E-O John Forsyth when Forsyth was president of the board that governs the state universities. “I very genuinely and sincerely think that the innovations that he brought to the board in terms of business efficiencies and focus and accountability were critical,” Skorton says. “They wouldn’t have been adopted unanimously by the board if other people didn’t feel that way and I maintain committed to those principles and the actions that will follow them.” Skorton says he had nothing to do with Forsyth’s resignation from the Board of Regents following a dispute between the University Hospitals and Wellmark, the company Forsyth runs.
“I have continued to deny and will continue to deny that I had any role whatsoever in those issues,” Skorton says. Skorton says his actions “easily” demonstrate he is four-square behind the transformation process Forsyth started at the universities.
Skorton says newly-appointed members of the Board of Regents are “strong” people who he will be able to work with. Skorton says he’s been a University of Iowa administrator for 16 years, and has always had a “good working relationship” with members of the Board of Regents. Skorton says he hopes legisaltors see he is sincere in his support of the cost-cutting ideas Forsyth advanced.
