EXTRA [Dec. 18]: Regents Meet 25 Minutes; Select Dentistry Dean Johnson Search Committee Chair; To Meet to Select Search Committee Members in January; Rebuff Three-Campus Faculty Request to Meet With Regents
Each of the major journalists covering the UI president search story (Erin Jordan, Diane Heldt and Brian Morelli) have articles in their morning (Dec. 19) papers, linked from below under "Media Stories and Commentary."
[Last evening (Dec.18) I provided this link to one of their online reports: Erin Jordan, "Regents Tap Dentistry Dean to Lead Search for U of I President," Des Moines Register Online, December 18, 2006.]
UI Faculty Senate Shelly Kurtz' letter to Regents (Dec. 18) and email to faculty regarding the new search process (Dec. 19) are now (Dec. 19) available; see, "References" under "Media Stories and Commentary," below. Tomorrow's (Dec. 20) papers will have mention of these items, and newly released data regarding additional search costs since the report of $195,000 -- now (Dec. 20) linked from below.
EXTRA [Dec. 20]: Erin Jordan Reports Another Regents' Conflict of Interest: UI Billed for Regents' Flights on Private Planes Owned by Regent's Husband. [It's not known why this rather stunning revelation was not alluded to in the Gazette's and Press-Citizen's stories about the search cost increases.] Des Moines Register Editorial Slams Regents' Secrecy, Violation of Iowa Open Meetings Law Purposes and Spirit.
[Note: If you're new to this blog, and interested in the whole UI President Search story, these blog entries begin with Nicholas Johnson, "UI President Search I," November 18, 2006. For any given entry, links to the prior 10 will be found in the leftmost column. Going directly to FromDC2Iowa.Blogspot.com will take you to the latest. Each contains links to the full text of virtually all known media stories and commentary, including mine, since the last blog entry. Together they represent what The Chronicle of Higher Education has called "one of the most comprehensive analyses of the controversy." The last entry containing the summary of prior entries (with the heading "This Blog's Focus on Regents' Presidential Search") is Nicholas Johnson, "UI President Search XIII -- Last Week," December 11, 2006. My proposed solution to the conflict is provided in Nicholas Johnson, "UI President Search VII: The Answer," November 26, 2006.]
Commentary - Dec. 18
The big story today is that the Regents are meeting, by phone, in open meeting, this afternoon at 5:00 p.m. -- though you wouldn't know it from the hard-copy media. (The Register makes passing mention of a meeting in an editorial (with no details), and The Gazette Online has a notice, with meeting places (and the promise of post-meeting reports at least online). The Daily Iowan is on a publishing hiatus -- one of the many benefits for the Regents, discussed in this blog earlier, that comes from their postponing from November 17 to now, just prior to the winter holiday, whatever it is they decide to do.
"Faculty Insist They Appoint Their Own Boss." In its editorial this morning, the Register repeats once again the representation that the real problem in Iowa City is that the "faculty insist they appoint their own boss." Editorial, "On U of I Search: Let's Take a Time Out; Allow for calm consideration of next steps," Des Moines Register, December 18, 2006. Here's my response, which I uploaded as a comment following that editorial, and repeat here in its entirety as blog comment:
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