The Iowa Board of Regents met in closed session several times last week without announcing each meeting, thereby violating the Iowa Open Meetings Law, an advocate for open government told The Des Moines Register. The advocate, Herb Strentz, who is a retired Drake University journalism professor and a founder of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, also believes the secrecy of the search process will “taint” a second attempt to select a new leader.

Members of the board — which voted on Friday to reject the four finalists and disband the search — say last week’s meetings did not have to be announced because they were separate segments of a closed-session meeting that started on November 9. Regents have also defended the secrecy of the search process, saying top candidates would pull out if they believed their names would be made public. The board plans to meet after Thanksgiving to discuss how it will resume the search.

Iowa is one of a couple dozen states that exempt public agencies, including public colleges, from public-records laws by not requiring the release of names of job applicants.