Trouble engulfs University of Iowa

Suicides, assault charges cast pall

IOWA CITY - Famous as a literary powerhouse, with its Writers' Workshop and award-winning newspaper, the University of Iowa has been the gloomy setting of more trouble and tragedy lately than could fit in a single book.

In the latest chapter, Mark Weiger, a renowned music professor named recently in a sexual harassment suit, was found dead in his garage on Nov. 12, apparently a suicide. It was the second suicide this semester of a university professor accused of sexual misconduct. In August, Arthur Miller, a highly regarded political science professor, shot himself after being charged with trading grades for sexual favors.

The university has also been embroiled in recriminations over the handling of a reported sexual assault of a woman last year by two football players in a dormitory, a case that led to the dismissal of two top administrators.

All the while, the university, with an enrollment of 30,000, is struggling to recover from this summer's devastating floods, which caused $230 million in damage and left some buildings in ruin. Art students, for example, are taking classes in an old Menards store. Some houses near the campus sit unoccupied, and some parks are a muddy mess.

"It's just eerie," said Vanessa Veiock, 22, the managing editor of the student magazine. "Your heart kind of plummets. It's never-ending."

The death of Weiger, who taught chamber music and oboe, came a week after a former graduate student filed a federal suit against him and the university accusing him of sexually harassing her on a daily basis in 2006-07. In the suit, she said he had made crude sexual comments and also inappropriately touched another female student in class. The suit also claims that the university did nothing to stop the harassment. The former student, who was a teaching assistant, said the harassment caused her to withdraw from school.

Steve Parrott, a university spokesman, said officials had met with Weiger after the accusations were first made and had reached a "resolution." But Parrott declined to specify the terms of any agreement.

He said the university was writing new policies to define harmful behavior and facilitate reporting of misconduct.

In August, Miller's body was found in Hickory Park, where he shot himself with a rifle, police said. Days earlier, he was charged in state court with four counts of accepting a bribe. The police said he had offered to give higher grades to female students who would show him their breasts or let him fondle them.

In the sexual assault case against the two football players, both of whom have since left the team, some members of the Board of Regents complained that the university had not properly investigated the accusation. An internal inquiry led to the dismissal of the university's chief legal counsel, Marcus Mills, and the vice president for student services, Phillip Jones. The case is awaiting trial.

Despite the university's troubles, students are quick to note its many achievements. A few weeks ago, The Daily Iowan won a National Pacemaker Award, the highest honor for a college newspaper, and the university is acclaimed for its Writers' Workshop, with alumni including writers Jane Smiley and John Irving, actor Gene Wilde, and jazz vocalist Al Jarreau.

As prospective students and parents toured the campus last Friday morning, a few people spoke in hushed tones about the pall that seems to hang over the university. But Ed Smith, a hospital administrator whose daughter is considering attending, said the problems besetting Iowa are not that unusual these days.

"The sad fact," Smith said, "is we can find examples of sexual harassment all throughout our society."