The Faculty Senate is putting together a proposal that will seat a faculty representative on the Iowa State Board of Regents.

Two regent positions will be vacated later this year.

“The idea was brought up to me by a disgruntled faculty member, and I mentioned it in passing to some of the senate members,” said Denise Vrchota, president of the Faculty Senate.

The idea did not get far in the senate because the members seemed a little surprised by the statement, she said.

The next step in the process is to get approval from Faculty Senate presidents of the other Iowa regent universities, including the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa.

“The senate president from UNI is interested in a group effort, but I haven’t talked to Iowa’s president yet,” Vrchota said.

The proposal will face several obstacles before it can be implemented, said Frank Stork, executive director of the Board of Regents.

“If a faculty representative were to be put on the board, there would have to be a total change in the Iowa statute,” he said.

As the statute stands now, the governor of Iowa appoints the regents.

“If there was a proposal, the Iowa Legislature would have to take action on it, and even then, it would not go into effect until the next year,” Stork said.

Another decision is who would be best suited to be the faculty regent.

“I would like to have a representative for all three regent universities,” Vrchota said.

The real problem arises when trying to figure out where the representative would come from, said Max Porter, chairman of the Council of Faculty Governance.

“We don’t know a lot of answers to some of the questions on this topic because it hasn’t been a deeply discussed issue in the senate,” he said.

Vrchota said she plans to discuss this topic in more detail with the senate presidents from the other regent universities during the next Iowa State Board of Regents meeting in February.