University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is facing two individual discrimination lawsuits after a former employee and a Kirkwood Community College and UI student both filed on July 17.

The first lawsuit was filed by Faith Sang, a Kenyan woman who worked as an advanced registered nurse practitioner at UIHC. She was hired in September 2018, and said in court documents that she was subject to hostility, harassment, and discrimination at work. 

According to the civil original notice in the court documents, Sang was the only advanced practice provider of color on her team. She claimed that “due to short staffing,” she was not assigned a peer to work with when she first started.

In the civil original notice, Sang stated she made a discrimination report to the UI Office of the Ombudperson. After she filed the complaint, she was moved to two different departments within UIHC, which she said she was not qualified for. 

Her employment was terminated Mar. 18, 2019. She filed her petition in the Iowa District Court for Johnson County on July 13, 2022. 

The lawsuit is against UIHC, the Iowa Board of Regents, and Kevin Glenn, the UIHC Adult Hospitalist Program Chief Hospitalist, for violation of Iowa Code Chapter 216. The code prohibits descrimination based on race, skin color, and national origin, retaliation for reporting adverse employment action, and aiding and abetting a UIHC staff member.

On Sept. 1, the UI filed a motion to dismiss Sang’s case on the grounds that the statute of limitations had passed, meaning the crime happened too long ago to be pursued.

The second lawsuit was filed by Nourhan Abdelrahim, an Egypt-born Muslim woman, who has been part of the Kirkwood Community College-UIHC partnership program since fall 2021. Abdelrahim states in the court documents that she was discriminated against for refusing to remove her hijab in class. 

According to the civil original notice, Abdelrahim stated part of the course material included measuring the head and placing electrodes on it. Because of this, she was concerned about her hijab and emailed her professor, Marjorie Tucker, and UIHC. 

Abdelrahim claimed neither Tucker nor UIHC responded to her concerns and on the first day of class, she was told to take off her hijab for the lab. Abdelrahim states when she refused, Tucker embarrassed and traumatized her and kicked her out of class. 

Abdelrahim said she reported the incident to Kirkwood Community College, the UI, and UIHC. According to the lawsuit, the UI did not take any action against Tucker.

According to the civil original notice, Abdelrahim also accused UIHC and the UI of violating Iowa Code 216. She accused them of religious accommodation discrimination, religious education discrimination, and retaliation by a staff member.

A motion to dismiss the case involving UIHC, the UI Health System, and Tucker was filed on Aug. 20, 2022 by UIHC. The motion emphasized a request to dismiss Tucker from the accusation of education discrimination.

The motion was denied and Abdelrahim’s case will go to trial. The trial date has not been determined but is expected to last five days.