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[Note: This material is copyright by The Gazette, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of The Gazette.]

  Regents President Michael Gartner, one of four regents on the search committee, said that was a factor when the board voted 62 Friday to reject the slate of candidates, disband the committee that has been working for several months and launch a new search. But Katherine Tachau, a UI professor of history and a vice chair of the disbanded committee, said many committee members were satisfied with the diversity of candidates. ‘‘The search committee members did their very best to make it as diverse a pool as possible. That doesn’t mean that people make it past an interview stage,’’ she said.

  Tachau said most of the seven candidates the search committee and regents interviewed were nominated by someone on the committee, or from the UI campus or alumni, rather than the Heidrick & Struggles search firm the committee hired for $110,000 to find candidates. ‘‘The fact that it was gender and racially diverse when we interviewed, I attribute to the committee,’’ she said.
  The seven candidates interviewed included women, Tachau said, and all had academic backgrounds with experience in higher education administration. The short list of four included at least one sitting university president, she said. About 150 names were considered.
  The committee was led by Regent Teresa Wahlert and had two campus-based vice chairs.
  After the vote Friday, Gartner told The Gazette most of the regents felt none of the candidates was the right fit for the UI job, especially given the UI’s health sciences focus. It was a sentiment echoed by two other regents on the search committee who spoke to The Gazette.
  But UI faculty, staff and student leaders on the committee, along with Regent Bob Downer of Iowa City, said the four candidates were highly qualified.
  The UI Faculty Senate and UI Student Government planned votes of no-confidence in the regents’ leadership next week, the first time for such a measure at the UI, said Senate President Sheldon Kurtz, a professor of law. The UI Staff Council planned one for Dec. 13.
  Gartner defended in a letter to the Des Moines Register that he also made available to The Gazette on Tuesday the search’s confidential nature, which he called standard for presidential searches.
  The Gazette has learned that the regents started a closed session on the presidential search on Nov. 9 in Ames. It never was adjourned, and resumed when all the regents, along with the search committee and the campus advisory committee, interviewed seven candidates on Nov. 10 and 11 at the Echo Valley Country Club in Des Moines.
  The Nov. 10 session lasted from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the Nov. 11 session lasted from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. All the regents then had a telephone conference call at 7 p.m. Nov. 15. The regents finally adjourned Friday after their vote in public session via a conference call.