Iowa State changes policies, settles over suit alleging unconstitutional practices

Iowa State University is changing its discrimination and harassment policies and saying it won't penalize students who fail to pledge compliance after one student fought the language and requirement, asserting they're unconstitutional.

Robert Dunn, listed online as an ISU senior, in October filed a lawsuit against ISU President Steven Leath and others he said actively quashed his free speech rights.

In the suit, Dunn reported that in the last two academic years the faculty warned him against espousing conservative views on campus as he was organizing an ISU chapter of Young Americans for Freedom - a national conservative organization.

ISU 'punishes student speech that ISU expressly acknowledges is protected by the First Amendment,” according to the federal lawsuit, filed Oct. 17, 2016.

ISU denied the allegations but last month signed a settlement agreeing to cover Dunn's $12,000 in legal fees and amending its policy, softening the language on what constitutes harassment. ISU also is backing down on alleged threats to hold students from graduating or put their names on a list for 'review” if they fail to complete training on the policies in question.

'Iowa State will not deny to plaintiff or any other student graduation or any other rights, privileges, or benefits to which he or they are otherwise entitled because of any refusal to complete the required training or to certify understanding and compliance,” according to the agreement approved Monday by the State Appeal Board.

The settlement doesn't prevent ISU from requiring students to receive the training, and it doesn't prevent the university from enforcing its revised discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct policies.

ISU spokesman John McCarroll said Monday the university already was reviewing its policies when Dunn filed his lawsuit, and those revisions made the legal claims 'moot.”

'Mr. Dunn was neither disciplined nor threatened with disciplinary action regarding his speech or the policies in question,” McCarroll said, refuting claims in the lawsuit.

'Iowa State University is committed to freedom of expression, and our policies comply with the U.S. Constitution and state and federal laws,” he said. 'We also take seriously our responsibility to prevent and address illegal discrimination and sexual harassment and sexual misconduct.”

According to Dunn's suit, ISU's old harassment and discrimination policy prohibited students from speech that just annoyed someone.

Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian nonprofit advocacy organization that represented Dunn, sent the university a letter in 2013 addressing constitutional concerns with its policies.

Receiving no response, the alliance sent a follow-up letter one year later, according to the lawsuit, and heard back in August 2014 that ISU was reviewing the policies. Although ISU updated policies last year, Dunn asserted that the 'constitutional infirmities were not addressed.”

According to the lawsuit, during the 2016 and 2017 school years, Dunn said professors and administrators warned him to be 'careful advocating for conservative views on campus because, if others are offended, his speech may be deemed to violate university policies.” Dunn alleged in the suit that Reginald Stewart, ISU's senior vice president for diversity and inclusion, met with him last spring and lectured him about expressing conservative beliefs on campus, discouraging him from offending other students.

ISU, in the settlement, asserts it has not admitted liability or even recognized the validity of Dunn's complaints.

The State Appeal Board on Monday approved two other settlements with Board of Regents universities.

l The state

Attorney General's Office agreed to a $3 million settlement in a lawsuit accusing the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics of failing to timely diagnose a condition, resulting in delayed surgical intervention and 'bilateral lower extremity paralysis.”

l The state

agreed to a $300,000 settlement in a lawsuit accusing UIHC of severing a nerve during a patient's elbow surgery, resulting in permanent impairment and loss of arm function.

l Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com