A pair of University of Iowa cancer researchers are claiming that their funding was misused in a recently filed gender discrimination lawsuit.
Current UI professors Corinne Griguer and Claudia Olivia filed a Polk County lawsuit against the university, the Iowa Board of Regents and the State of Iowa on Feb. 5. The suit includes several allegations of wage and lab space-related discrepancies between the two female researchers and their male counterparts.
The allegations are centered around a six-year time frame, from 2018 to 2024, claiming the University of Iowa violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
According to the 29-page lawsuit filed on Feb. 5, Griguer and Oliva agreed to University of Iowa employment contracts in 2018, migrating from the University of Alabama, where they had conducted research together for more than 15 years. The women earned Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry in the early 1990s and have worked together since 2002.
Their University of Iowa research has “largely focused” on brain cancer and “the role that mitochondria play in glioblastoma’s resistance to chemotherapy,” the lawsuit said. Glioblastoma is a “fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor,” according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Griguer is a full-time University of Iowa professor in the radiation oncology department while she is also a faculty member of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. Oliva is listed as a research assistant professor of radiation oncology.
Startup money allegedly used to cover salaries
The pair brought more than $1 million in National Institutes of Health funding with them from Alabama when they came to Iowa City.
Griguer was designated the “principal investigator” and Oliva was regarded as “essential personnel. According to the lawsuit, Oliva is “one of a few researchers in the country” who can apply a particular testing method to their specific brain cancer research.
A copy of their employment contracts provided in the lawsuit claims the University of Iowa was supposed to provide $250,000 in startup money for equipment, plus an additional $250,000 during the first year of research for lab supplies and personnel. Another $150,000 was allegedly promised for additional lab and personnel costs in the second and third years that Griguer was employed at the university.
In December 2022, radiation oncology “staff and leadership” allegedly contacted Griguer to inform her that the UI “intended to breach her employment contract.” The department said they were allegedly “taking back more than $500,000” in startup funds. The university claimed that they had used some of that money to pay Griguer and Oliva’s salaries starting in July 2022, allegedly without their knowledge.
The lawsuit claims that their male counterparts did not have to use startup money to cover their salaries.
“Male staff members were not required to use startup money to fund their own salaries that were paid largely from departmental funds,” Cedar Rapids-based lawyer Ann Brown wrote in the court filing.
A few months later, in February 2023, the department chair allegedly agreed to return $237,000 of the $537,000 owed as part of the pair’s startup funds while they were awaiting news of a $2 million NIH grant.
The lawsuit claims that even though the researchers were awarded a second NIH grant, the university said they would still pay 100 percent of their salaries with startup funds, limiting how much research they could conduct.
Wages, funds and space fell short of male counterparts, suit alleges
The lawsuit claims that Griguer and Oliva were paid less money than their male counterparts who received less grant funding and were less experienced or acclaimed.
The lawsuit argues that despite Griguer allegedly securing “more outside funding than any male” between 2018 and 2024, she was underpaid.
“Based on this criteria, Plaintiff Griguer should be earning more than her male colleagues but instead is earning between $20,000 and $60,000 less than her male colleagues,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also points to discrepancies between Oliva and a male research assistant professor hired in the exact same position as Oliva in the summer of 2023.
Lawsuit argues smaller lab space is a breach of contract
The lawsuit also claims that Griguer was contractually obligated to a certain amount of lab space.
The then-department head wrote plainly, “Your laboratory will have 1,500 square feet of space available for your program.” Griguer was also allegedly promised additional lab space if she secured more grants, “anticipating” that the facility could expand to 2,000 square feet. Oliva was allegedly supposed to receive about 100 feet of space within Griguer’s lab.
Griguer and Oliva were allegedly provided with a 1,167-square-foot laboratory, nearly 400 feet smaller than promised.
The pair received their $2 million NIH in 2023 and instead of expanding, the lab was allegedly reduced to 875 square feet.
Griguer did not agree with the reduction, but the university allegedly “refused to increase her lab space to the contractually promised amount.” The NIH grant also budgeted for the hiring of two additional researchers, but according to the lawsuit, was no longer feasible because the 875-foot lab didn’t have “the sufficient space for new staff.”
Oliva’s designated office space was allegedly eliminated when the office shrank, and she only had access to the lab three days a week.
Griguer’s lawsuit argues that her male counterparts weren’t forced to downsize in similar situations.
“Male faculty members had substantially more lab space than Plaintiff Griguer,” the lawsuit reads.
A Polk County judge provided the state an extension to the “answer” deadline in late February. Oliva and Griguer have requested a jury trial, but no date has yet been set.
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.
