The day has finally come. Wendy Wintersteen will be Iowa State University’s next president.

President of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, Vivek Lawana served on the presidential search committee, which has dissolved as of Monday.

“When we were selecting the final candidates, they told us to select candidates that we would be happy with no matter who was chosen, and that’s exactly what we did. All four candidates are perfect for the position.”

Wendy Wintersteen has been the dean of Iowa State University’s college of agriculture for the past 11 years, and received her doctorate at Iowa State as well.

“My goal is to make our university the best land grant university in the nation,” Wintersteen said.

GPSS President Lawana, member of the Presidential Search Committee says Wintersteen was a very strong candidate. He voted for her, as well as every single other member of the presidential search committee.

Lawana says he is very excited to work with Wintersteen, and to work with her on the graduate program. He said it was important to him that she was a graduate student here, has been graduate faculty, and knows “the ins and the outs” of Iowa State.

“It makes me really excited for her as a president knowing that she is already loved by students, and will work with students,” Lawana said.

Lawana said he was also excited for her to become president because of her fundraising. As dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Science (CALS), the college has been a huge fundraiser.

“CALS is one of the top colleges in raising funds. She has done the best job of fundraising among the four top finalists,” Lawana said.

Lawana also stated that graduate students within CALS have expressed to him concerns about Wintersteen. He says that graduate assistant numbers have gone down, and he plans to request to meet with her about the graduate school.

“If there is an issue, I will definitely be letting her know. She is very inclusive and understanding, so I’m sure she will understand. I will be requesting to meet with her to talk about the graduate school and keeping GPSS in the loop.” – Vivek Lawana, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate President and presidential search committee member.