IOWA City, Iowa - Public listening sessions are now set up in the University of Iowa's search for a new president.
Nine Zoom sessions start Thursday and run through December 22nd.
School President Bruce Harreld is retiring two years ahead of his contract expiration, but has promised to stay until a replacement is named.
Harreld has had a strained relationship with faculty members and was criticized after thousands of students and staff were sickened from a COVID-19 outbreak on campus.
Faculty members were concerned when the former IBM executive was appointed to lead the school in 2015. More recently, some students, faculty and staff members staged a sick-out in protest of the university’s reopening and demanded that in-person classes be canceled during the pandemic. Iowa City became a COVID-19 hot spot shortly afterward.
The Iowa Board of Regents plan to have a replacement for Harreld named by April 30.
Find a link to the listening sessions here.