Mitchell Schmidt

Iowa City Press-Citizen

A University of Iowa student has been expelled and permanently separated from the university after his alleged sexual assault of another UI student on Jan. 15, according to a document obtained by the Press-Citizen.

The expulsion from UI is the first in at least a decade, perhaps longer, UI administrators say.

On April 1, Dean of Students David Grady sent a letter to the victim, whose name is not being disclosed, stating that the alleged student had violated the UI's sexual misconduct policy and withdrew this Spring 2014 semester registration.

"The student charged with misconduct has been immediately and permanently separated from the University of Iowa without a possibility of reinstatement," Grady wrote in the letter. "His record in the Office of the Dean of Students will indicate that he was expelled and a notation placed on his academic transcript. He is not eligible to enroll in undergraduate courses, graduate courses or on-line courses offered by the University of Iowa."

Tom Rocklin, UI's vice president of student life, said suspensions commonly have been the disciplinary tool for violating a UI policy, and this action marks the first expulsion of a UI student for sexual misconduct in at least a decade.

"We know there hasn't been one for the last 10 years anyway," Rocklin said Thursday.

Rocklin said the expulsion can be directly tied to UI President Sally Mason's Six Point Plan to Combat Sexual Assault, which she announced in late February.

"We have used indefinite suspensions, we've used termed suspensions, but the president's plan, the Six Point Plan, calls for the use of expulsion in the most serious offenses, and this is one of the most serious offenses so I think it is fair to say this is part of the Six Point Plan that the president announced," Rocklin said.

A press release issued by UI today states that the expulsion was a result of a pattern of predatory behavior that involved an act of forcible fondling and a separate incident that involved forcible fondling in addition to forcible sodomy.

Grady told the Press-Citizen in February that, in the past three years, he has suspended 22 students. Twelve of those suspensions were for sexual misconduct or domestic violence incidents.

According to the April 1 letter, the victim reported in January that she had been sexually assaulted in her dorm room on Jan. 15.

Grady states in the letter that an investigation into the alleged sexual assault, which ended Feb. 24, concluded that UI policies had been violated by the student who allegedly assaulted the female victim.

An administrative hearing had been scheduled, but was canceled on April 1 after the student waived his right to the meeting.

"Since the student has accepted the sanctions I have imposed, waived his right to a hearing, and waived any subsequent right to an appeal, the hearing has been canceled," Grady wrote in the letter.

The letter also states that a no-contact order is in effect between the victim and the expelled student, and the expelled student is prohibited from entering UI property at any time for any reason without Grady's written permission.

"While it was not easy, you did the right thing by coming forward with the complaint,"

Grady wrote to the victim. "Your courage and strength is to be commended."

Thirteen timely warnings have been issued by the UI this academic year, including one timely warning issued for two unrelated incidents April 3. Of those, 12 were initially reported as cases of sexual misconduct.

The number of reported sexual assaults on and near campus has led to discussions and demonstrations on campus, and prompted Mason to release a Six Point Plan to Combat Sexual Assault.