Another record number at regents hearing

For the second time in a row, a public hearing at the University of Iowa has attracted a record number of people looking to leave video comments for the Iowa Board of Regents.

This time, the comments ranged from criticism of UI's recent contract extension with its athletics director to concerns raised about UI President Bruce Harreld's campuswide town hall meeting scheduled for next week.

Nearly all of the 10 commenters expressed frustration about the regents' three-year-old hearing system in which members of the public are asked to gather at one of six sites around the state to offer up to five minutes worth of recorded commentary.

"This entire set up of so-called 'public hearings,' which are really one-way videotapes with no obligation on your ends to engage with our contributions, speaks volumes about" the regents' disregard of Iowa's strong reputation for higher education, said Matthew Brown, an associate professor of English at UI.

The previous record of eight commenters took place during the Nov. 20 hearing at UI. Before then, no one had shown up at any of the UI hearings for nearly a year.

Several commenters Thursday referenced the recent news that the university had signed a five-year contract extension with athletics director Gary Barta. The contract extension — which guarantees Barta $4.6 million in compensation through June 30, 2021 — follows strong seasons for the Hawkeye football and basketball teams but also comes amid a federal investigation into allegations of gender discrimination in the athletics department.

"While Mr. Barta probably deserves some reward, a modest reward, it seems frankly outrageous," said Harry Stecopoulos, an associate professor of English at UI. "After all, he doesn't throw the ball. He doesn't shoot the ball. He doesn't clean the uniforms. He doesn't tend to the players' injuries."

The majority of Thursday's commenters also reiterated concerns about last year's selection of Harreld, a former IBM executive, as UI's 21st president. Several raised specific concerns about the town hall meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday in Room C20 of the Pomerantz Center. The meeting will be the first campuswide public event featuring Harreld since his September public forum as one of four finalists for the job.

"We've been waiting now for about four months for a public forum that was recently announced would now be a town hall," said John Logsdon, a biology professor at UI. "Hopefully Mr. Harreld will actually provide answers to questions that are provided him by individuals, and this won't be a filibustering type of event, which is similar to what happened during his job interview public forum."

In his initial announcement of Tuesday's event, Harreld referred to the meeting as an example of the "public forums" that he would be holding "on a regular basis" throughout his presidency. Critics of the search process that led to Harreld's hiring have been calling on the new president to hold a public forum since shortly after he began the job Nov. 2.

In a later campuswide message providing the time and location for Tuesday's event, Harreld referred to event as "a town hall meeting" in which he and members of his administrative team would provide updates on the short-term and long-term plans for the university. That language was echoed in a news release sent earlier this week.

The nine-member Iowa Board of Regents is scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday in Ames. Video of the comments collected Thursday will be posted to the regents website.

Similar video hearings took place Thursday at the University of Northern Iowan and the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton. Hearings are scheduled for Friday at Iowa State University, the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs and the board's office in Urbandale.

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at 319-887-5435 or jcharisc@press-citizen.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jeffcharis.