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Regents are a bunch of clowns

Mary Maher Sturm

Iowa City Press-Citizen

December 4, 2006

[Note: This material is copyright by the Press-Citizen, 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 Iowa City Press-Citizen.]

Let me get this straight: The faculty and staff (and perhaps general public) are complaining about the Iowa state Board of Regents making dictatorial decisions concerning the presidential search at the University of Iowa at closed meetings; the university faculty considered calling for a vote of no-confidence on the Board of Regents; Gov. Tom Vilsack met with some governing members of the university community in a closed meeting; and the vote of no-confidence was canceled with no explanation after meeting with Vilsack.

The Board of Regents remains intact, the university still has no president and the public knows nothing about what is going on in that regard — except for what we have been able to hear from Robert Downer. Vote or no vote, I have no confidence in the credibility of this Board of Regents and think they must be removed, or at the very least cleansed of Teresa Wahlert and Michael Gartner.

It appears to me that Vilsack cannot remove himself from Gartner. Is this part of his political machine in progress? I think we have been fed a bucketful of SWILL-sack. For what it is worth, Vilsack’s alliance with Gartner is going to cost him his political goals. If this is the best board that Vilsack could appoint? What troop of clowns would he appoint as advisers should he be elected president?

Mary Maher Sturm
Iowa City