ACTA President Anne D. Neal’s Statement on New University of Iowa President J. Bruce Harreld

Higher education is facing many challenges and institutions wedded to the status quo will have a bleak future.  Governance for a new era requires boards to be laser-focused on examining  candidates from inside and outside academic circles. The ranks of business and government offer many, excellent individuals committed to higher education who have been and are excellent presidents—Mitch Daniels at Purdue, David Boren at the University of Oklahoma, Hank Brown at the University of Colorado, Arthur Rothkopf at Lafayette, to name only a few.

Rigidity at a time of immense change is counterproductive and, sadly, a reason that public confidence in higher education is declining as higher education faces challenges of both quality and cost. The Regents are to be commended; this search process with four publicly-announced finalists is noteworthy for its inclusiveness and transparency when most searches simply put one candidate forward.