The Board of Regents has selected an outstanding individual in Ben Allen to serve as the next president of the University of Northern Iowa. His skills, experience and dedication to higher education and to the state of Iowa will make him an exceptional leader of UNI.
He has served Iowa State University extremely well as a faculty member, dean, vice president and provost, and he did a superb job in leading our strategic planning and university re-accreditation processes and overseeing the merger of two of our colleges to form the new College of Human Sciences. He is a strong, decisive leader with great interpersonal skills who is highly respected throughout the university and well beyond our campus. And he is a person with the highest standards of honesty and integrity.
While I look forward to working with Ben in his new capacity as president of UNI, all of us at Iowa State and in Ames will miss Ben and his wife, Pat, very much.
Within the next few weeks, I will appoint an interim provost to serve while we conduct a national search for a permanent Executive Vice President and Provost, a title change that I am recommending to the Board of Regents next week.