Regents select Iowa Farm Bureau head as new leader 

IOWA CITY (AP) ? The president of the Iowa Farm Bureau will lead the board that governs Iowa?s public universities after his colleagues voted Tuesday to carry out a personnel shake-up orchestrated by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad.

One day after David Miles, the Board of Regents president, and Jack Evans, its president pro tem, announced they were stepping down at the governor?s request, the board voted 7-0 to name dairy farmer Craig Lang, of Brooklyn, as board president. The board also voted 7-0 to name agribusiness leader Bruce Rastetter, the top donor to Branstad?s campaign last year, the president pro tem.

The change puts two Republican, agricultural industry leaders in charge of the board as it begins to search for a new president for Iowa State University and manages ongoing funding challenges. Democrats have accused Branstad of politically interfering with a board that they say should be independent.

Miles said in a letter to colleagues Monday that Branstad asked the pair to step down in May, a request he called unprecedented. He and Evans, who had had been picked by the board to continue their leadership roles through April 30, 2012, initially declined the governor?s request because they viewed the board?s independence as an important principle, Miles wrote.

But he said their colleagues on the board were divided on the issue, and that some regents saw a leadership change as key to improving the working relationship with Branstad?s office. Miles said they ultimately decided to step down because ?decision-making has become more difficult? and the division had become a distraction from the board?s work.

Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said the governor wanted a board president who shared his vision for the future of the state, and that Lang was best suited for the role. He praised Lang?s understanding of the Iowa and global economy and said, as an Iowa State graduate, he is a good pick to oversee the search for the next ISU president.

Branstad appointees Katie Mulholland and Nicole Carroll nominated Lang for the president?s job, and regents unanimously approved the selection without discussion. In a statement released immediately after the vote, Lang said the most important issue facing the board is finding a replacement for ISU President Greg Geoffroy, who has announced plans to step down next year.

?Iowa has an opportunity to be a key leader in the bioeconomy, especially given our strength in agriculture and our research institutions, and I believe Iowa State University can and should be on the forefront of that growing industry,? Lang said. ?ISU?s new leader must have a vision that leverages Iowa?s strengths, and one of those strengths is the bioeconomy.?

Lang and Rastetter will serve out the remainder of Miles? and Evans? terms, and the board will pick new leaders for a two-year term next year.

Some Democrats said they believe the move was designed to help Rastetter, who has been a leader in the ethanol and hog farming industries, to more quickly become regents president. Albrecht did not deny that prospect but said it will be up to the board to decide who to choose as president next year. Rastetter did not immediately return a phone message following Tuesday?s meeting.

Rastetter had urged Branstad to come out of political retirement to run for a fifth term as Iowa governor, and donated more than $160,000 to his successful campaign last year. Branstad appointed him, Mulholland and Carroll to the board earlier this year.

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, a Coralville Democrat who chairs the appropriations committee, called Branstad?s decision to ask Miles and Evans to step down a politically motivated overreach. He said the two had led Iowa?s public universities remarkably well through devastating flooding, and funding and economic challenges, and should have been allowed to finish their terms.

?The whole idea of the Board of Regents is to have an independent body there taking care of our public universities,? he said. ?To have the governor involved in petty politics with it, that doesn?t make sense.?

By law, board members are appointed by the governor to serve staggered six-year terms and they must be confirmed by the Iowa Senate. No more than 5 members of the board ? which oversees ISU, the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa and special schools for deaf and blind students ? can be of the same political party.

Lang is serving his fifth two-year term as president of the Iowa Farm Bureau, which lobbies on behalf of Iowa farmers. Like Evans and Miles, he was appointed as a regent in 2007 by then-Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.