MEMORANDUM
TO: All University of Iowa Faculty, Staff, and Students
FROM: Susan Buckley, Vice President for Human Resources
Georgina Dodge, Chief Diversity Officer, Associate Vice President, and Title IX Coordinator
John Keller, Associate Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate College
Kevin Kregel, Associate Provost for Faculty
Tom Rocklin, Vice President for Student Life
DATE: Wed., Oct. 15, 2014
RE: Revision of UI's Human Rights Policy Effective September 26, 2014
The University of Iowa's Human Rights Policy has been revised by a committee convened by President Mason to combine the Human Rights Policy and discrimination complaint procedures into one chapter of the university's Operations Manual. The revised policy is available at http://www.uiowa.edu/~our/opmanual/ii/03.htm. Changes include:
- * Adding religion, pregnancy, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, and service in the U.S. military as protected categories (Section 3.1)
- * Clarifying that reasonable accommodations will be provided to persons with disabilities (Section 3.1)
- * Clarifying that reasonable accommodations will be provided for religious practices (Section 3.1)
- * Adding sections on policy and rationale, definitions, process for bringing a complaint, sanctions, procedures, protections against retaliation and of the respondent, and confidentiality resources and expectations
- * Extending the period for typical complaint processing to 60 days (Section 3.3(c))
- * Adding an evidentiary standard (Section 3.3(c))
- * Adding appeal procedures (Section 3.6)
The former Policy on Complaints of Discrimination was rescinded due to redundancy with the revised Human Rights Policy.
The university's Nondiscrimination Statement (http://www.uiowa.edu/~our/opmanual/ii/06.htm) will be updated to reflect the new areas of protected status.
If you have questions, please contact the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at diversity@uiowa.edu or 319-335-0705.