Regent: Response to ISU plane scandal was 'slap in the face'

The Board of Regents' decision to take no action against Iowa State University President Steven Leath for misusing university airplanes was "a slap in the face" to taxpayers, a regent later complained to his colleagues.

Sahai was sick and missed a Dec. 12 meeting in which the board received an audit questioning dozens of flights that Leath took on two university planes he purchased and upgraded with nearly $4 million in private donations.

Leath has paid back nearly $40,000 for damage to the plane and trips related to his personal flight training, medical appointments at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and taking relatives to and from an NCAA tournament basketball game.

A retiree who had been an Iowa State professor for 38 years said that retaining Leath sets a "double standard for university administrators" compared to other students and employees, who would be expelled or fired for similar conduct.