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The University of Iowa Faculty Senate has voted "no confidence" in the Board of Regents, The Iowa City Press-Citizen reported. Faculty members said that they were ignored in the process of choosing the university's new president, particularly when they urged the board not to select one of the four finalists, and then the board went on to select him. That finalist is Bruce Harreld, who was selected while lacking experience in higher education. The resolution adopted by the Faculty Senate said that the board showed a "blatant disregard for the shared nature of university governance."

After the vote, Bruce Rastetter, the board's president, issued a statement criticizing the Faculty Senate's action. "The landscape of higher education is changing and the current ways of operating are not sustainable," the statement said. "After listening to all stakeholder feedback as well as having frank conversations with each of the candidates, the board unanimously thought Bruce Harreld’s experience in transitioning other large enterprises through change, and his vision for reinvesting in the core mission of teaching and research, would ultimately provide the leadership needed. We are disappointed that some of those stakeholders have decided to embrace the status quo of the past over opportunities for the future and focus their efforts on resistance to change instead of working together to make the University of Iowa even greater."