Branstad Appoints More Big Business, Corporate Ag Insiders to Board of Regents

Iowa CCI members demand to know where Regents appointees stand on academic freedom, accountability and transparency measures

Governor Terry Branstad continues to stack the Iowa Board of Regents with big business insiders after appointing an agribusiness attorney and a construction company CEO to oversee Iowa’s public universities earlier today, and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) members say the nominees should publicly state where they stand on issues like academic freedom and accountability and transparency at the regents.

“Everyday Iowans need to know whether or not Larry McKibben and Milt Dakovich support increased accountability and transparency at the Iowa Board of Regents to protect academic freedom and the public interest from corporate corruption as we’ve seen all too often in the past,” said Ross Grooters, a CCI member from Pleasant Hill. “We have real concerns about appointing more corporate and political insiders to the regents while other community stakeholders are excluded, particularly when the regents currently don’t even allow public comment at their meetings and refuse to enforce their ethics policy.

The Regents Transparency Taskforce is scheduled to meet on June 18, but Iowa CCI members say some members of the transparency taskforce with ties to the regents like Nicole Carroll and Tom Evans are standing in the way of common-sense reforms to business as usual.