Iowa faculty told to destroy records in dean dispute

• Crocco has been dean of education since March 2011Of 65 faculty ballots that were returned, 44 expressed no confidence in CroccoTwo high-ranking university officials ordered unfavorable comments about Crocco destroyed

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Two high-ranking University of Iowa officials recently ordered the destruction of records pertaining to faculty dissatisfaction with the dean of the College of Education, according to faculty and staff there.

The action, which one college professor described as "unprecedented," took place shortly after 44 members of the College of Education expressed no confidence in the dean's leadership.

Provost P. Barry Butler and university general counsel Carroll Reasoner were the officials who allegedly ordered the documents destroyed.

At the center of the controversy is Margaret Crocco, the dean of the College of Education. A recent survey showed education faculty members are upset about salary conditions within the department, among other issues.

Professor Elizabeth M. Altmaier told The Des Moines Register that a group of senior faculty members recently initiated a vote of confidence in Crocco.

Of the 91 ballots that were sent out, 65 were completed and returned, she said. Of those who voted, 44 expressed no confidence in Crocco; 16 expressed confidence; and five abstained.

Such a vote has no precedent in the history of the College of Education and may be a first for the entire university, said Altmaier, who works in the College of Education.

Crocco has been dean of the College of Education since March 2011. She was previously professor and chairwoman of the Department of Arts and Humanities at Teachers College at Columbia University.

Altmaier protested the "bullying" actions of Butler and Reasoner in a letter she sent Thursday to Butler and copied to University President Sally Mason and others.

Reasoner, Butler and Crocco did not return calls to their offices on Thursday.

The effort to secure and destroy faculty comments about Crocco is related to a survey that was part of a routine process in which university employees are asked to answer basic questions about their work experience.

But the survey also provided an opportunity for faculty members to document their feelings about Crocco's leadership in the College of Education.

According to a recent letter to the faculty from Mike Morony, who is the chairman of the Staff Council, and Volker Thomas, who is chairman of the Faculty Advisory Council, 79 employees provided written comments along with the survey responses and those comments were shared with Crocco on Nov. 27.

On Monday, Butler allegedly contacted Thomas and asked him to refrain from releasing the comments because they could be "of great harm," the letter stated.

According to the letter, Butler called Thomas the next day and summoned him, along with Morony, to a meeting at the university's Lindquist Center, which houses the College of Education.

At that meeting, Butler allegedly said "time was of the essence" and told Morony and Thomas, both of whom are College of Education employees, that he would not leave the building without them "turning over to him all hard copies of the comments" portion of the survey.

Butler also stated that he wanted "an email confirmation" that the two had destroyed any electronic copies they had retained, according to the letter from Morony and Thomas.

It's not clear why the university wanted to secure and destroy the written survey comments by the faculty. Butler told colleagues in an email last month that he has "high confidence in Dean Crocco."

But the survey showed that 62 percent of the faculty disagreed with the statement "I can speak openly about work-related concerns with the dean." Eighty-one percent of the faculty indicated they did not understand how salary decisions were made within the College of Education.

Butler allegedly told Morony and Thomas he had been advised by Reasoner to tell the two that that if they refused to comply, the university would "withdraw the legal protection" they had from lawsuits as members of the staff and they would be "on their own" should someone file a lawsuit, the letter from Morony and Thomas stated.

To demonstrate this, Butler allegedly called Reasoner and "she confirmed that this was the university's position," according to the letter.

The letter stated that two were also told that the university would take the additional step of deleting any electronic versions of the comments that might have been archived or backed up on a server.

Thomas and Morony agreed to the demands, and in their letter to their colleagues they expressed their "deep regret."

The Des Moines Register has formally requested copies of the faculty comments, along with all emails to or from Mason about the destruction of the records, under Iowa's open-records law.

Altamier told the Register she was stunned by the university's efforts to suppress the faculty's concerns.

"I don't know that there are enough words to describe this — other than shocking," she said. "This is literally unheard of."

Altamier told the Register she believes Thomas and Morony deserve an apology.

"Their integrity was impugned, and they were treated in a disrespectful manner," she said.