2008 Woodie Awards
Provost search not cheap
Bryce Bauer - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Metro
As they courted and questioned then-provost candidate Wallace Loh, they ate five salads, lasagna, a pork chop, some beef tips, a vegetable tower, one plate of potato ravioli, something called a mixed grill, and swirled it all down with a press-pot of decaf coffee and three glasses of Knob Creek whiskey.
Their total ticket that March 13 evening at Givanni's in Iowa City: $184.71.
And it was just part of the $56,506.50 spent to find and eventually select Loh to replace former UI Provost Michael Hogan.
Identifying and replacing top university administrators is an involved process, and doing so required expenditures on everything from advertising ($4,541), to candidate travel ($12,837), and student aides ($325).
And despite the cost - about one-fifth of what Hogan was paid in 2007, according to the Des Moines Register's salary database - Michael O'Hara, a co-chairman of the search committee, said he was not surprised by cost, adding that when the search began, the panel members didn't have any specific estimate in mind.
The committee paid the candidates' travel expenses for both on- and off-campus interviews, renting of meeting rooms, and gallons of coffee. They also sent the candidates to dinner with both committee members and UI faculty from their respective area.
Loh, who said he was also a provost candidate for the University of Colorado-Boulder in the mid-1990s, said while the off-campus interviews provided a chance for UI officials to interview him, the on-campus dinners gave him the opportunity to evaluate the university.
"There is no way one can get a sense of an institution simply by reading the website and having a three- to four-hour interview at the airport," he said. "The tables are reversed when I am [on campus], and it is also a time for the UI sell itself to the candidates."
Loh - who is currently at Seattle University - said part of the reason he quickly accepted the UI's offer was because of the warmth shown to him by the campus community, warmth he said is better conveyed at restaurants than meeting rooms.
O'Hara, also noted some expense for the current search was avoided by not using a search firm, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"I think we were able to function fine without a search firm," he said. "We ended up with an extremely strong provost."
E-mail DI reporter Bryce Bauer at:
bryce-bauer@uiowa.edu
Their total ticket that March 13 evening at Givanni's in Iowa City: $184.71.
And it was just part of the $56,506.50 spent to find and eventually select Loh to replace former UI Provost Michael Hogan.
Identifying and replacing top university administrators is an involved process, and doing so required expenditures on everything from advertising ($4,541), to candidate travel ($12,837), and student aides ($325).
And despite the cost - about one-fifth of what Hogan was paid in 2007, according to the Des Moines Register's salary database - Michael O'Hara, a co-chairman of the search committee, said he was not surprised by cost, adding that when the search began, the panel members didn't have any specific estimate in mind.
The committee paid the candidates' travel expenses for both on- and off-campus interviews, renting of meeting rooms, and gallons of coffee. They also sent the candidates to dinner with both committee members and UI faculty from their respective area.
Loh, who said he was also a provost candidate for the University of Colorado-Boulder in the mid-1990s, said while the off-campus interviews provided a chance for UI officials to interview him, the on-campus dinners gave him the opportunity to evaluate the university.
"There is no way one can get a sense of an institution simply by reading the website and having a three- to four-hour interview at the airport," he said. "The tables are reversed when I am [on campus], and it is also a time for the UI sell itself to the candidates."
Loh - who is currently at Seattle University - said part of the reason he quickly accepted the UI's offer was because of the warmth shown to him by the campus community, warmth he said is better conveyed at restaurants than meeting rooms.
O'Hara, also noted some expense for the current search was avoided by not using a search firm, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"I think we were able to function fine without a search firm," he said. "We ended up with an extremely strong provost."
E-mail DI reporter Bryce Bauer at:
bryce-bauer@uiowa.edu
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Rip Off
posted 4/09/08 @ 10:24 AM CST
What a rip off. They say, "if you can't do then teach and if you can't teach then administrate."
vonmarxen
posted 4/09/08 @ 12:07 PM CST
did the university officials fill out the proper paperwork to purchase alcohol with the university credit card? back in my days of working with the university and the live music acts we booked we were told that it was "strictly illegal" to purchase any alcohol with said cards. (Continued…)
George
posted 4/09/08 @ 12:33 PM CST
It sounds as though the search was fairly reasonable in cost.
As for the alcohol, I would expect that the UI policies were followed:
http://www.uiowa. (Continued…)
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