ANKENY, Iowa — Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) is facing a complaint from one of its own leaders.
Wade Robinson, the school's dean of student resources, accused DMACC of failing to retain its Title IX complaint records after ending its contract with NAVEX EthicsPoint in 2023. The company provided DMACC with a portal for students and staff to submit anonymous complaints regarding anything from embezzlement to sexual harassment through the community college's website.
Title IX is a federal law prohibiting discrimination in schools based on sex.
But last month, Robinson noticed something was wrong after filing a records request for a prior Title IX complaint from 2018.
"When we discontinued [our contract with NAVEX EthicsPoint] in February of 2023, there were no records retained, nothing was archived by Navex Global, and no records were retained by the two people who could see the reports here," Robinson told Local 5 News on Tuesday, four days after submitting a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights against DMACC.
In terms of potential impact, if the U.S. Department of Education discovers DMACC did not report any of its Title IX complaints when submitted, disciplinary action could be taken against school staff.
"Very frustrating only because what we don't know is how many reports were submitted through it, and we have absolutely no historical record from 12-14-16 years," Robinson said. "Who knows how many different things were submitted in there."
When the complaints were submitted through the NAVEX EthicsPoint portal, those went straight to three people, Robinson said: former executive vice president of college operations Stan Jensen, college president Rob Denson and former DMACC vice president of business services Greg Martin.
Robinson added he wishes the school officials with access to the records would have printed and scanned all complaints as a backup.
DMACC president Rob Denson informed Local 5 News this matter is still under investigation, but the school is working to try and retain its complaint records.
Now, if students or staff submit Title IX complaints to DMACC, they do so through the school's "whistleblower complaint policy," Robinson explained.
On Oct. 18, Robinson said he filed a whistleblower complaint with DMACC regarding "multiple Title IX issues," because he said he's felt retaliated against. This complaint is pending.