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[Note: This material is copyright by the Des Moines Register, 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 Des Moines Register.]

Mary Gilchrist, who led the lab from 1995 until Oct. 3, 2006, had poor financial accountability and was not a team player, testified Meredith Hay, the U of I's vice president for research.

"There seemed to be a real lack of transparency with communication, revenue streams and financing," Hay said.

Hay and interim President Gary Fethke were called to the stand as part of a lawsuit Gilchrist has filed in Johnson County asserting the administrators fired her illegally.

The hearing was the first time university officials have commented on the circumstances that led to Gilchrist's dismissal.

Gilchrist, who will testify Monday, is seeking an injunction to keep the U of I from hiring a new director.

Gilchrist alleges Fethke and Hay violated state whistle-blower laws by firing her for talking with state officials about her concerns that a new hygienic laboratory would be scaled back to meet the budget and that a program she favored had not been funded.

Gilchrist supported a $41.4 million lab design that included additional space for growth and for "surge capacity" in case of a public health emergency, witnesses said.

U of I officials eliminated the extra space to make the project fit the budget of about $38 million, they said.

Hay told Gilchrist and the lab's No. 2 administrator, Jack Cameron, that they were not to lobby legislators, Board of Regents members or other state leaders about increasing the size of the building, Cameron testified.

"We were told to smile and support the design," he said. "Any subsequent fundraising was supposed to go through Meredith."

Hay said she had other concerns about Gilchrist, including her resistance to providing information for U of I audits of the laboratory. The Board of Regents is now auditing the laboratory as part of a regular series of audits of auxiliary units at Iowa's three public universities. Todd Stewart, the board's internal audit director, said he will give Fethke a report in March.

Gilchrist says Fethke and Hay tried to muzzle her by offering her nearly $90,000 to leave quietly.

Fethke confirmed Gilchrist was offered a severance package and the issuance of a joint statement about why she was leaving. He said that was to preserve her reputation.

Fethke, who was dean of the College of Business before being named interim president last spring, said he believed Gilchrist was thinking more of the lab's image than of its functionality.

"Its image was somehow deteriorating in her view," he said. "I ... understand that as a human being, but it was increasingly out of reality."