NottiBoy
Banned
Pipe down, hobbit.
Sally Mason's Contract not Renewed
- Thread starter wuppup
- Start date
Pipe down, hobbit.
kmajhawk
Well-Known Member
In a way you did. Crapper maker had to get Uncle Gub's approval to make a version meeting requirements necessitating 14 flushes to totally clear one pile of poop plus TP.
ThunderHawk
Well-Known Member
Because everything else is infotainment crap.
BILLBUCKNER
Well-Known Member
If this is true, then why didn't Skorton stick around and wait it out till the board turns over.. He seems to be the petty one ..leaving because he didn't get a big enough raise.. Don't the pres have their housing paid for by the state also?? Great gig if you ask me. as for Maso, we could get along fine without her. Signing off on the ridiculous contract of kfs is reason enough to fire her. Barta needs to go..period. Then pay top dollar for a top AD that will lead the athletic dept and start demanding results.
UIHawkGrad
Well-Known Member
B-B-B-BUT MARK LEVIN ISN'T A WINGNUT!!1!!
You don't have to ask Uncle Sam because you don't have a choice of the toilet you choose in terms of the Gallons Per Flush (GPF) measure. I guess you don't remember the toilet flow regulations that the Federal Government put into place in the early 1990's. Since 1994, only toilets with 1.6 GPF or less can be purchased for residential use.
This was supposed to help our environment and help us conserve water. What they didn't take into consideration is having to flush multiple times to avoid clogging the toilet because there is not enough water being used in each flush.
Light bulbs is another prime example of the Federal Government thinking they know what is best for us common folks. Incandescent bulbs are being phased out in favor of compact flourescent bulbs. Most people don't know that if a CF bulb is broken, there are specific steps that need to be taken to clean up and dispose of the broken bulb to avoid possible risks to humans. This is because CF bulbs contain mercury.
You mock Mark Levin but what he says is correct. We do live under a soft tyranny and these two examples are just a small sample. This last election may have been a tipping point because there is now a majority of this country that doesn't mind being dictated to and/or taken care of by an all powerful Federal Government. Our Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves.
If you can read Levin's Ameritopia and Democracy In America by Alexis de Toucquville with an open mind, you will get a better picture for what the democrats and liberals are doing to our country.
Sorry for the thread highjack!
ThunderHawk
Well-Known Member
I was about two days away from suing her last year over a brazen and blatant statutory violation vis a vis a private enterprise which the university, with her blessing, decided to try to put out of business. Trust me, she needs to go, and now. She's an unethical, unprincipled, spineless hack.
it had little to do with pay, and everything to do with wellmark
ThunderHawk
Well-Known Member
STFU, wingnut. There's no bigger welfare queens than the crew who tried to buy your preferred Rombot into office. Have you ever heard Mark Levin speak? The mere sound of his voice makes me want to punch him in the face. Sounds like Grover Norquist, except whinier.
Des Moines Register
11-26-06
U of I seeks remedy for unease
Those wanting a university president with experience in health care had one until they drove him away, one regent says.
By ERIN JORDAN
REGISTER IOWA CITY BUREAU
Iowa City, Ia. - Does the controversy surrounding the University of Iowa's aborted search for a new president have its roots in a contract dispute two years ago between University Hospitals and the state's largest health insurance company?
That's the question being asked in Iowa City last week. And in the view of many U of I faculty members, along with at least one member of the Iowa Board of Regents, the answer is yes.
The Iowa City campus has been roiled by controversy since the decision nine days ago by the regents. The board voted 6-2 to throw out the names of four finalists for the U of I presidency and to disband the 18-member search committee that picked the final four.
U of I faculty members already were testy about the search process because the committee was headed by Regent Teresa Wahlert of West Des Moines, rather than a faculty member.
Regent Robert Downer, an Iowa City lawyer, suggests in an essay in today's Des Moines Sunday Register that the regents' actions following the contract dispute with Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield drove former U of I President David Skorton from the university.
"The irony in all of this is that Skorton possessed the qualifications that the board majority now says it needs in a U of I president," Downer writes.
"The justification for terminating the search, and the search committee, at this point escapes me," he also writes.
Skorton, a cardiologist and longtime U of I administrator, left Iowa City last summer to become president of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Members of the Board of Regents have given little explanation for their 6-2 decision on Nov. 17 to restart the U of I search.
Afterward, Regents President Michael Gartner, a Des Moines businessman, said a majority of board members and all four regents on the search committee wanted "candidates who had more experience as leaders who oversaw complex health sciences operations as well as the myriad of other academic and nonacademic operations of a large university."
Neither the regents nor the search committee has publicly identified the four finalists. The Register learned that three of them are provosts at large universities with health science operations or medical schools. The fourth finalist is president of a midsized university.
Conflict may stem from 2004 dispute
Downer believes the conflict that ultimately drove Skorton from the university started in December 2004, when Skorton said University Hospitals would terminate its contract with Wellmark Inc. by Dec. 31, 2005, if the two sides could not negotiate a new contract that included higher reimbursement rates for services provided to Wellmark clients by University Hospitals.
The dispute snowballed and led to the resignations of three regents.
John Forsyth, Wellmark's chief executive and the regents president at the time, resigned from the board after Attorney General Tom Miller ruled that he had a conflict of interest in representing both the insurance company and University Hospitals.
Wellmark and the university ended their standoff in June 2005 with a standard rate increase but an agreement that the U of I would have more input on future rates.
Downer: Salary snub tied to Wellmark
Some U of I faculty and staff said Skorton won the battle, but, in the end, lost the war.
"They were unhappy with the fallout," said Punit Vyas, a U of I graduate student in health administration and a member of the presidential search committee, referring to state leaders.
"They couldn't have kept Skorton because he wouldn't have been a puppet in their hands."
In August 2005, two months after the Wellmark dispute ended, the regents voted unanimously to give Skorton a 3 percent base salary increase to $302,047 - compared with 5 percent raises that were given to the presidents of Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.
Downer now says he regrets voting for the smaller increase and says he did so to "maintain unity" on the board. Downer says the raise was a direct result of Skorton's involvement in the Wellmark dispute.
"This was almost entirely associated with the Wellmark contract matter," Downer said. "Not to have said that is unfair to someone who spent 26 years at an institution in our governance."
Gartner did not return calls last week seeking his reaction to Downer's comments.
In the past, Skorton has said little about what role, if any, the size of his pay raise played in his decision to leave the U of I. He could not be reached last week for comment for this article.
Past presidents didn't have health expertise
Downer, in his essay, questions Gartner's assertion that the University of Iowa needs a leader with health care expertise.
"Have U of I presidents historically possessed health-care expertise?" Downer writes. "No."
Before Skorton, the U of I's presidents were a biochemist, a Greek classics scholar and a law school dean.
"If, in fact, the health-care expertise now touted as being critical to serving as U of I president is a long-recognized prerequisite of the position, why was Skorton denied a raise comparable to the other presidents?" Downer asks. "I would submit that it was due to Skorton's heresy in giving a notice of termination of the University of Iowa Hospitals ... contract with Wellmark."
Downer has said the regents' decision to throw out the four finalists recommended by the search committee and to start the U of I search all over was "inexplicable."
He writes in his essay: "Those board members not on the search committee had been repeatedly told by the board members on the committee that the board would have an excellent field of candidates from which to make our final selection.
"We were further urged to act quickly because numerous peer institutions were only slightly behind us in a presidential search process, and that the best candidates would be taken by these other universities if we did not act expeditiously."
Best candidates suddenly lacking
The regents interviewed seven semifinalists on Nov. 10-11 and discussed the candidates on Nov. 14-15.
"However, a mere 30 hours after that meeting was again recessed, these 'outstanding candidates' were suddenly found to be lacking," Downer writes.
"I also have great difficulty in accepting the board majority's explanation for 'blowing up' the search for this reason because, even though I am chair of the board's hospital committee, I was never contacted regarding this," he continues.
"I felt that the seven persons interviewed by the combined search committee and Board of Regents were truly outstanding," he writes.
Downer questions the need for the new president to have hands-on health-sciences management experience. He notes that the regents were considering creating a vice president's job under the U of I president to oversee University Hospitals and the College of Medicine.
"It is clear that the hospital is running very smoothly under the outstanding leadership of hospital CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky," Downer says.
A semifinalist who missed the cut
Adding fuel to the controversy was the disclosure last week by some members of the search committee that Gartner pushed for Deborah Freund, a former Syracuse University administrator with ties to a Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance company, to be added to the list of finalists.
Freund, a vice chancellor and provost at Syracuse at one time, is a health economist. She sits on the board of directors of Lifetime Health, a $5 billion company that owns Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance plans in upstate New York.
Freund was not included on the list of four finalists the search committee picked. Committee members said the reasons she was left off included concerns about her connections with the insurance industry, a belief that other candidates were stronger, and concerns about her management style.
The university has paid a consultant, Heidrick & Struggles of Atlanta, at least $110,000 to conduct the search.
Reporter Erin Jordan can be reached at (319) 351-6527 or ejordan@dmreg.com
11-26-06
U of I seeks remedy for unease
Those wanting a university president with experience in health care had one until they drove him away, one regent says.
By ERIN JORDAN
REGISTER IOWA CITY BUREAU
Iowa City, Ia. - Does the controversy surrounding the University of Iowa's aborted search for a new president have its roots in a contract dispute two years ago between University Hospitals and the state's largest health insurance company?
That's the question being asked in Iowa City last week. And in the view of many U of I faculty members, along with at least one member of the Iowa Board of Regents, the answer is yes.
The Iowa City campus has been roiled by controversy since the decision nine days ago by the regents. The board voted 6-2 to throw out the names of four finalists for the U of I presidency and to disband the 18-member search committee that picked the final four.
U of I faculty members already were testy about the search process because the committee was headed by Regent Teresa Wahlert of West Des Moines, rather than a faculty member.
Regent Robert Downer, an Iowa City lawyer, suggests in an essay in today's Des Moines Sunday Register that the regents' actions following the contract dispute with Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield drove former U of I President David Skorton from the university.
"The irony in all of this is that Skorton possessed the qualifications that the board majority now says it needs in a U of I president," Downer writes.
"The justification for terminating the search, and the search committee, at this point escapes me," he also writes.
Skorton, a cardiologist and longtime U of I administrator, left Iowa City last summer to become president of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Members of the Board of Regents have given little explanation for their 6-2 decision on Nov. 17 to restart the U of I search.
Afterward, Regents President Michael Gartner, a Des Moines businessman, said a majority of board members and all four regents on the search committee wanted "candidates who had more experience as leaders who oversaw complex health sciences operations as well as the myriad of other academic and nonacademic operations of a large university."
Neither the regents nor the search committee has publicly identified the four finalists. The Register learned that three of them are provosts at large universities with health science operations or medical schools. The fourth finalist is president of a midsized university.
Conflict may stem from 2004 dispute
Downer believes the conflict that ultimately drove Skorton from the university started in December 2004, when Skorton said University Hospitals would terminate its contract with Wellmark Inc. by Dec. 31, 2005, if the two sides could not negotiate a new contract that included higher reimbursement rates for services provided to Wellmark clients by University Hospitals.
The dispute snowballed and led to the resignations of three regents.
John Forsyth, Wellmark's chief executive and the regents president at the time, resigned from the board after Attorney General Tom Miller ruled that he had a conflict of interest in representing both the insurance company and University Hospitals.
Wellmark and the university ended their standoff in June 2005 with a standard rate increase but an agreement that the U of I would have more input on future rates.
Downer: Salary snub tied to Wellmark
Some U of I faculty and staff said Skorton won the battle, but, in the end, lost the war.
"They were unhappy with the fallout," said Punit Vyas, a U of I graduate student in health administration and a member of the presidential search committee, referring to state leaders.
"They couldn't have kept Skorton because he wouldn't have been a puppet in their hands."
In August 2005, two months after the Wellmark dispute ended, the regents voted unanimously to give Skorton a 3 percent base salary increase to $302,047 - compared with 5 percent raises that were given to the presidents of Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.
Downer now says he regrets voting for the smaller increase and says he did so to "maintain unity" on the board. Downer says the raise was a direct result of Skorton's involvement in the Wellmark dispute.
"This was almost entirely associated with the Wellmark contract matter," Downer said. "Not to have said that is unfair to someone who spent 26 years at an institution in our governance."
Gartner did not return calls last week seeking his reaction to Downer's comments.
In the past, Skorton has said little about what role, if any, the size of his pay raise played in his decision to leave the U of I. He could not be reached last week for comment for this article.
Past presidents didn't have health expertise
Downer, in his essay, questions Gartner's assertion that the University of Iowa needs a leader with health care expertise.
"Have U of I presidents historically possessed health-care expertise?" Downer writes. "No."
Before Skorton, the U of I's presidents were a biochemist, a Greek classics scholar and a law school dean.
"If, in fact, the health-care expertise now touted as being critical to serving as U of I president is a long-recognized prerequisite of the position, why was Skorton denied a raise comparable to the other presidents?" Downer asks. "I would submit that it was due to Skorton's heresy in giving a notice of termination of the University of Iowa Hospitals ... contract with Wellmark."
Downer has said the regents' decision to throw out the four finalists recommended by the search committee and to start the U of I search all over was "inexplicable."
He writes in his essay: "Those board members not on the search committee had been repeatedly told by the board members on the committee that the board would have an excellent field of candidates from which to make our final selection.
"We were further urged to act quickly because numerous peer institutions were only slightly behind us in a presidential search process, and that the best candidates would be taken by these other universities if we did not act expeditiously."
Best candidates suddenly lacking
The regents interviewed seven semifinalists on Nov. 10-11 and discussed the candidates on Nov. 14-15.
"However, a mere 30 hours after that meeting was again recessed, these 'outstanding candidates' were suddenly found to be lacking," Downer writes.
"I also have great difficulty in accepting the board majority's explanation for 'blowing up' the search for this reason because, even though I am chair of the board's hospital committee, I was never contacted regarding this," he continues.
"I felt that the seven persons interviewed by the combined search committee and Board of Regents were truly outstanding," he writes.
Downer questions the need for the new president to have hands-on health-sciences management experience. He notes that the regents were considering creating a vice president's job under the U of I president to oversee University Hospitals and the College of Medicine.
"It is clear that the hospital is running very smoothly under the outstanding leadership of hospital CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky," Downer says.
A semifinalist who missed the cut
Adding fuel to the controversy was the disclosure last week by some members of the search committee that Gartner pushed for Deborah Freund, a former Syracuse University administrator with ties to a Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance company, to be added to the list of finalists.
Freund, a vice chancellor and provost at Syracuse at one time, is a health economist. She sits on the board of directors of Lifetime Health, a $5 billion company that owns Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance plans in upstate New York.
Freund was not included on the list of four finalists the search committee picked. Committee members said the reasons she was left off included concerns about her connections with the insurance industry, a belief that other candidates were stronger, and concerns about her management style.
The university has paid a consultant, Heidrick & Struggles of Atlanta, at least $110,000 to conduct the search.
Reporter Erin Jordan can be reached at (319) 351-6527 or ejordan@dmreg.com
NottiBoy
Banned
So much more useful than a link.
ThunderHawk
Well-Known Member
Totally doesn't violate copyright either...
JohnstonHawkeye
Banned
You mean like Mason did with McCall and Coker? STFU, she needs to go AWAY and NOW
you may want to brush up on certain legal knowledge
UIHawkGrad
Well-Known Member
Typical liberal argument responding with name-calling and physical threats. Although I voted for Romney as the lesser of two evils, he was, by far, not my favorite candidate. I am a small government, social conservative and would rather have seen Paul Ryan at the top of that ticket. Even better would have been someone like Jim DeMint or Col. Allen West.
I want a 15% to 18% flat tax and would eliminate all deductions. The government shouldn't be in the business of picking winners and losers so I would eliminate all Federal corporate and business subsidies. If there is a market for something, there is plenty of money in the private sector. I am for a federal safety net for those that truly need it but not cradle to grave entitlements for those that are able to support themselves, whether they choose to or not. I would eliminate foreign aid to countries that are not friendly to the U.S. but I am not for isolationism. A strong U.S. Military is the greatest force for peace in this world and is a constitutionally appropriate way for us to spend federal tax revenues.
I listen to Mark Levin regularly but I listen to the substance of what he says rather than sound of his voice. Sounds like you could benefit from listening to him more.
Were? I know what happened to that Jesus guy, but what about Santa?
Last edited:
GhostofBTT
Banned
This thread delivers.
NottiBoy
Banned
Just like an ISU graduate does when I order a pizza.
Churlish79
Well-Known Member
DodgerHawki
Well-Known Member
Correct..
Gartner being on the BoR was a shame. The fact that he still holds sway over what anyone thinks scares me. Mason is a fine/decent person and in different times would probably be just fine as President. But she's been at the helm during some rather embarrassing incidents. Her office/administration was pictured unfavorably for how the Everson/Satterfield case was handled. I believe at that time she either did not get a raise or less of a raise than the other state university presidents.
The relationship between the BoR and the president is always a fine line. Board needs to let Presidents have the leeway to implement their vision, but still provide the proper amount of oversight.
Gartner being on the BoR was a shame. The fact that he still holds sway over what anyone thinks scares me. Mason is a fine/decent person and in different times would probably be just fine as President. But she's been at the helm during some rather embarrassing incidents. Her office/administration was pictured unfavorably for how the Everson/Satterfield case was handled. I believe at that time she either did not get a raise or less of a raise than the other state university presidents.
The relationship between the BoR and the president is always a fine line. Board needs to let Presidents have the leeway to implement their vision, but still provide the proper amount of oversight.
