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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The Iowa Board of Regents on Tuesday reopened its investigation of how Iowa handled its inquiry into the alleged sexual assault of a woman by two players.
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The board took action after learning about letters sent by the mother of the woman who claims she was raped on Oct. 14 at a campus dorm. The letters were sent last November and in May to school officials, including University of Iowa President Sally Mason, but were not disclosed to the regents until last week after they were provided to the Iowa City Press-Citizen newspaper.
The May letter has not been made public.
In the letters, the mother accuses the university of mishandling its response to her daughter's allegations. She said officials encouraged her daughter, also an Iowa athlete, to pursue a resolution "informally" and within the athletic department. She said the family was told that it would be faster than the "arduous" process of involving police.
Board of Regents President David Miles said Tuesday that he was "dumbfounded" the letters weren't made available, and called it "a serious breach of trust."
"This board owes Iowans a full accounting, and they will get it," he said.
The board appointed Regent Bonnie Campbell, a former state attorney general, to oversee the new investigation. The panel is expected to complete a report on its findings by Sept. 18.
During Tuesday's meeting, Mason expressed her "profound and sincere regret" for not turning over the letters to the regents. She said she believed that releasing them would violate federal privacy laws.
"I apologize for this error and for not making certain that the board had access to all information relevant to this case," she told the board.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Mason defended the university's response. While the decision to withhold the letters from the regents was a mistake with "untenable" legal justification, Mason said school officials had otherwise followed protocol.
She deflected questions about whether school officials should be fired.
"Do I feel like my job is on the line? My job is on the line every day, OK?" she said. "My job is obviously to protect the integrity of the university and to do the best job that I can to make sure that things are the way they should be. I feel very strongly that we did our best under very difficult circumstances.
"There can be disagreements, obviously, about how that worked out."