10.2 Rationale

(Amended 3/07; 5/15; 6/8/22)

The faculty, staff, and students of the University of Iowa make up a community whose common commitment is to learning. This commitment requires that the highest value be placed on the use of reason and that violence involving the university community be renounced as inimical to its goals. Violence, whether actual or threatened, destroys the mutual trust which must bind members of the community if they are to be successful in pursuing truth. The university therefore wishes to make clear that it considers acts and threats of violence to constitute serious violations of university policy, because they may undermine the university's status as a community of learning. Particularly heinous is violence which harms or demeans members of the community because of personal characteristics such as race, creed, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth and related conditions), disability, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, service in the U.S. military, sexual orientation, gender identity, or associational preferences.