Regents Vote to Reopen Investigation
By Justin Foss, Reporter
Board of Regents president David Miles addresses the board on Tuesday, July 22, 2008, regarding the letters the University of Iowa received from the mother of an alleged sexual assault victim's mother, at the Pappajohn Business Building on the UI campus in Iowa City.
(Liz Martin/The Gazette)
By
Becky Ogann
Story Created:
Jul 21, 2008 at 9:42 AM CST
Story Updated:
Jul 22, 2008 at 5:29 PM CST
IOWA CITY - The Iowa Board of Regents is reopening its investigation into how the University of Iowa handled an inquiry into the alleged assault of a woman by two football players.
The regents voted unanimously Tuesday after learning the University withheld letters it received from the mother of an alleged sexual assault victim.
A female student said she was assaulted in a room in the Hillcrest Residence Hall last October. Two former Hawkeye football players, Abe Satterfield and Cedric Everson, have pleaded not guilty to sexual abuse charges.
Last month the regents said the university handled the case appropriately, but that was before they received the letters.
The victim's mother wrote two letters to the University. One in November, another in May. In the letter, the mother says the University didn't do the right thing and didn't follow protocol.
Just last Friday, the Regents learned about those letters. They say they are dumbfounded because they investigated the incident and asked for all the information from the University and never got the letters.
"Why it is that eight months have passed and we never got the letters that the University didn't give them to the governing board. We don't know why we weren't given the letters," said David Miles, Regents President.
The University of Iowa President Sally Mason said the original thought for withholding the letters was to follow a federal law protecting student privacy. Now, she says that wasn't a good excuse.
"Those letters should have been given to the board of regents, we knew they existed and knew they were here," said Sally Mason, UI President.
Regents agreed and said its trust with the University of Iowa is damaged.
And repairing it will depend on the outcome of this re-opened investigation for which they hope to have answers by September 18th.
"What I hoped to show is that the Board of Regents takes their responsibility very seriously and if we need to look into something further, we will do that," said Miles.
The University of Iowa says its confident that the new investigation will say that it did follow procedure, despite the claims in this four-page letter.
The Regents said they'll look into everything, saying all Iowans are owed an accurate account of what happened.
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