Settlement: Former UI professor can’t contact grad students involved in investigation

IOWA CITY — The University of Iowa has agreed to suspend “internal proceedings” with a tenured associate professor and not fire him as long as he resigns, relinquishes his tenure rights and stays away from “any of the three graduate students referred to as ‘complainants’ in the university’s investigation reports,” records show.

By signing a settlement agreement with the UI, the state Attorney General’s Office and the Board of Regents, professor Thorsten Rudroff resigned “in lieu of termination” on Sunday — six years after he started as an assistant professor in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Department of Health and Human Physiology in 2018.

“Employee shall not enter the university building where the Department of Health and Human Physiology is housed,” according to the settlement, which says Rudroff cannot contact or respond to contact from any of the involved graduate students “by any means, including texts, or other messaging, social media, phone, email, personal or indirect methods.”

Rudroff did not return a phone call Monday from The Gazette seeking comment. He’s no longer listed as a faculty member in the health and human physiology department, but was listed online Monday as an associate professor in the UI College of Medicine’s Department of Neurology, where he held a secondary appointment.

“Mr. Rudroff is no longer employed in any capacity at the University of Iowa, which includes UI Health Care,” UI spokeswoman Jeneane Beck said. “He was allowed to resign in lieu of termination to reach a settlement agreement that prevents him from suing the university or the graduate students involved in a complaint against him. Harassment and misconduct will not be tolerated by the university,” without providing details of the internal investigation.

As part of the settlement, the UI agreed to pay Rudroff a total of $15,000 — including $5,905 “subject to all regular payroll adjustments,” with the remaining $9,095 made out to the Kennedy Law Firm for legal fees.

Rudroff agreed not to sue the university, the three graduate students listed as complainants in UI investigative reports, who were not named, or anyone connected to them. He also agreed to not seek or accept employment with the university.

The university noted it would “comply with its regulatory requirements and/or grant terms and conditions in communicating with funding and oversight agencies, including notification of the results of the university’s internal investigation.”

That, according to the settlement, includes “full and truthful responses and full cooperation with any agency investigations, in responding to agency requests for information or documents.”

The settlement does not constitute an admission of guilt by the university, the state, the regents or the graduate students involved.

Medical marijuana expertise

Before coming to Iowa six years ago, Rudroff earned master’s degrees and a doctorate in Germany, pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado Boulder in neurophysiology of movement, and worked as an assistant professor and director of the Integrative Neurophysiology Lab at Colorado State University.

Among his research specialties is medical marijuana — running clinical trials on the topic, publishing research and participating as an expert panelist on the issue, including several years ago for a “Medical Use of Cannabis Research Symposium” through Mercy College of Health Sciences in Des Moines.

His UI bio reports Rudroff for the last 15 years has focused on “the neuromuscular mechanisms of human fatigue and physical disability.”

“More recently, my research focuses on developing a clearer understanding of fatigue, pain, disability, and the treatments in PwMS and in older adults,” according to his UI bio.

His specific interest in cannabis use relates to patients with multiple sclerosis and older adults — with research funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Rudroff has published more than 70 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and has thousands of citations, according to Google Scholar.

Tenure protections

When Rudroff started as an assistant professor in 2018 at the UI, he was earning an annual salary of $79,000, according to UI records. He became an associate professor in 2022 and this year was earning $96,266, all covered out of the general fund.

Although all three of Iowa’s public universities have systems in place to monitor the performance of professors with tenure — an employment status meant to ensure academic freedom by allowing for termination only with just cause or under extreme financial circumstances — tenured professors are not commonly terminated.

That over the last few years has concerned lawmakers, including some Republicans who’ve proposed bills to eliminate tenure from Iowa’s public universities. While those have not gained legislative traction, the universities have been called to answer lawmaker questions about their tenure systems — including a question last year about how often tenured professors are placed on performance plans.

The UI reported one to two tenured faculty members go on an improvement plan each year; Iowa State University administrators said they put three to four faculty on improvement plans annually as a result of “unsatisfactory” rating; and the University of Northern Iowa reported that in the 2021-22 academic year, 33 were cited for “needing improvement” in their annual reviews.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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