A former athletic administrator for the University of Iowa claims she was mistreated and ultimately lost her job with the Iowa Hawkeyes athletic department because she was a gay woman.
The case of Jane Meyer kicked off in court on Tuesday, with both sides laying out their case. Meyer claims she was a model employee for 13 years, while the school says she became a problem employee they had to remove in part because head football coach Kirk Ferentz wanted her gone.
What’s a little odd here is that she was an employee for 13 years, then allegedly suddenly became impossible to work with in a few short months.
According to The Gazette, some of the most egregious accusations from coaches included Meyer not getting a coach some renderings of a building and telling another coach he couldn’t enter a construction site.
“While Ms. Meyer did an outstanding job in many areas, over time issues arose with her communications style and issues with others — essentially with coaches over facilities,” said George Carroll, one of the University of Iowa’s attorneys, according to The Gazette.
What it sounds a lot more like is that the male coaches didn’t much like the woman telling them what they could and could not do. In the male-driven world of high-level college sports, that doesn’t go over very well with the good-ol’-boys club.
One of the victims of that club was Meyer’s partner, field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum, who was fired shortly before Meyer. The school says Griesbaum was released because she wasn’t nice enough to her female players; Griesbaum says she was held to a different standard than the school’s male coaches.
Meyer claims her being in a same-sex relationship was part of the reason for her mistreatment.
You can read more about the case’s first day in court at The Gazette and The Republic.
