***UPDATE: UNI contacted us and let us know it talked with the professor and she no longer has such a policy and the communication shared online was from 2021. HOWEVER, The Iowa Standard has learned that the communication was indeed from a 2024-25 syllabus. The professor claims she “accidentally” copy and pasted it from last year’s syllabus. UNI told us the communication was from 2021 and NEVER volunteered the information that it was indeed in this year’s syllabus. They only insisted they would not provide the syllabus.***
A few days ago, an image of a communication from a University of Northern Iowa professor that purported to show the professor would only meet with students in her office who are masked and vaccinated was shared online.
Upon seeing the post, The Iowa Standard reached out to the professor — a woman called Rachel Morgan. On Aug. 26, we sent Morgan the following message:
“Good morning! I saw a post on social media where someone is alleging that you will only meet with masked and vaccinated students in your office. I’m wondering if that is still your policy? If it ever was your policy, and if so when? Obviously, if it is current policy or ever was you are free to explain why. I did submit an open records request for communications regarding your 2024-25 classes but thought it’d be good to also contact you directly to get these answers.”
Morgan has not responded to our inquiry.
We submitted an open records request with UNI, asking for copies of public records from Morgan to her students for the 2024-25 academic year. We noted the records include communications such as the course syllabus and other instructions to her students.
UNI responded it reviewed the request and estimated there would be four hours of data extraction, review and redaction at $30 per hour. That made for a total of $90.
Because The Iowa Standard believed it to be a waste of time to go through that process with any records that didn’t include the words “mask,” “masked” or “vaccinated” we asked to narrow the records request to include communications containing any of those words.
UNI responded that the four-hour estimate would still be necessary.
In addition, for the first time, UNI said it considers a syllabus to be copyrighted property of the instructors who create them and it would not distribute the syllabus to a third party without prior authorization.
“Because Morgan owns the copyright to the syllabi documents that were created for her courses and she has not authorized the sharing of the course syllabi, these would also need to be redacted from any data retrieved through the searches,” the university claimed.
Copyright, though, protects the owner from unauthorized republication. The Iowa Standard wouldn’t be republishing the syllabus, of course. Just like there are hundreds of thousands of books in a college library that are all copyrighted, the copyright doesn’t prevent people from reading the books.
Regardless, it doesn’t appear UNI will comply with the request. It also doesn’t appear Morgan wants to clarify what she put in her own communications.
The communication reads:
“You can call me Rachel or Ms. Morgan and my pronouns are she/her/hers. The best way to reach me is via email and you can expect a response from me within a day during the work week. While I will be in my office during office hours, I will only meet with masked and vaccinated students in my office. If you do not want to wear a mask, have not received the vaccine or are generally more comfortable meeting remotely, let’s meet via Zoom.”
So, if the post is accurate, it appears Morgan refuses to meet with students who are unmasked and/or not vaccinated.
During COVID, Morgan did encourage people to contact lawmakers to not reinstate a ban on mask mandates for schools.
This is ridiculous. This is a communication from 2021, three years ago, and clearly has no pertinence or relevance or context to current practices. Your organization’s time would be better spent pursuing legitimate causes.
I just found out she “accidentally” copy and pasted the syllabus and this was indeed in the 2024-25 syllabus. So it wasn’t from 2021.