The University of Iowa has signed a contract amendment with a Des Moines law firm to continue the employment practices review that began in November. The amendment directs Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. to review documentation and data to assess the UI Department of Intercollegiate Athletics’ compliance with employment laws and policies concerning equitable treatment of employees.

The agreement shall not extend beyond 90 days or exceed $92,000 without prior authorization. This is the third step of the university’s employment practices review announced by President Bruce Harreld last spring. A committee representing Shared Governance drafted the Request for Qualifications (RFQL) and selected the firm.

Fredrikson & Byron completed the first two steps, interviewing leadership in athletics and human resources and analyzing compliance of university and athletics employment policies, last month and issued a report.

You can read the full report online.

It concluded the current university-wide human rights, sexual harassment, anti-retaliation, and violence policies, as well as the related athletics department policies, are compliant with state and federal workplace laws but with clarification could be even more effective. It did recommend changes to the university-wide anti-harassment policy, noting the definition of harassment as it relates to speech is narrower than what may be considered harassment under the designated laws.

This next step of the review will be to evaluate athletics practices to determine if there are discrepancies between the written policies and application of those policies across campus. The university will then consider future project phases to review academic and operational units and UI Health Care.