Ethics Hotline Online Reporting

Ethics Hotline is a third-party secure website that connects an individual with the appropriate University employee to respond to the concern without identifying the reporting individual.

Ethics Hotline is NOT a 911 or Emergency Service. Contact Drake Public Safety at 515-271-2222 or Des Moines Police at 911 for immediate response to emergencies.

Go to the Ethics Hotline site and click on the Submit button below Report an Incent. From there, you will be taken to an intake form. This is where you can decide if you would like to proceed anonymously by clicking the appropriate button.

You may also start a report by calling Ethics Hotline at 877-853-5263. You will still have the option to remain anonymous if you call.

The Ethics Hotline site lists a broad category of reports that may be filed with the University. The purpose of these categories is to ensure that your report is directed to the appropriate University employee for review and response. The current categories for reports are:

• Accounting, Auditing, and Internal Financial Controls: Questionable procedures relating to accounting, auditing, or financial controls. (Examples include misstatement of financial reports, violations of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, billing issues, information security, and financial concerns).
• Conflict of Interest: Actions that influence the exercise of one’s duty of loyalty. (Examples include inappropriate vendor relations, bribery, nepotism, and exploitation of confidential information).
• Discrimination, or Harassment, or Bias: A student, employee, or third-party may report any violation of Drake’s Discriminatory Harassment Policy, bias incidents, or other discrimination based on based on race, color, national origin, creed, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, veteran status in employment, education programs, or university activities.
• Environmental/Safety Matters: Failure to meet the requirement of any applicable law, rule or regulation relating to the environment, working conditions or workplace safety, including, without limitation, regulations, promulgated by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) agency, and similar agencies in other jurisdictions.
• Falsification of Contracts or Records: Altering, fabricating, destroying, misrepresenting, or forging contracts or documents for personal gain.
• Fraud: A willful or deliberate act committed with the intention of obtaining money or property by misrepresentation, deception, or other unethical means.
• Improper Supplier or Contractor Activity: Supplier or contractor activity in violation of institution’s policies and procedures; improper supplier or contractor selection based on personal gain, improper negotiation or diversion of contract awards.
• NCAA Rule Violations -- Recruiting and Other Misconduct: Giving, receiving or solicitation of items which could be reasonably interpreted as an effort to influence a recruiting decision. Violations of NCAA rules applicable to student athletes, donors, coaches or others includes but not limited to phone calls or unauthorized visits outside the recruiting period; undue duress or influence from alumni, trustee or unauthorized personnel; recruiting players outside amateur status; extra benefits provided to prospective student-athlete or their family.
• Sexual & Interpersonal Misconduct/Discrimination: A student, employee, or third-party may report any violation of Drake’s Sexual Harassment Policy (which covers traditional forms of sexual harassment, as well as sexual assault, sexual exploitation, dating violence, domestic violence, and sex-based stalking) or discrimination on the basis of sex in employment, or University education programs and activities.
• Theft / Embezzlement: The act of stealing; specifically: the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. To appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use (Examples include bookkeeping errors, misapplication of funds, and mishandling of cash)
• Violence or Threat: An expression of the intention to inflict evil, injury, or damage to a person or their property. (examples include direct, veiled, conditional, violent). Also report hazing here, even if the hazing is not physical.

When a report is made through Ethics Hotline, know that the University will take it seriously and will look into the matter as far as reasonably possible given the information received. The University respects a person’s choice to proceed anonymously and can support an individual through that process; please understand, however, that doing so may limit the University’s ability to both respond fully to the incident and assist the individual directly other than through the anonymous online dialogue. If more resources are needed or if specific outcomes are wanted, the individual could also consider a traditional report or formal complaint process through the University.

After you file an anonymous report, you will receive a unique and secure code that will allow you to log back in to check for any responses or questions from the University.

A University employee will review your report and will get back in touch with you to either acknowledge your report or possibly to ask further questions or provide information; however, because the report is anonymous and not tied to an e-mail account, you will not be notified of the response. Ethics Hotline will instruct you to check back on the site for any responses, questions, or information from the University.

To check the status of your report, go to the Ethics Hotline website and follow the instructions under Already Made a Report?

If the report is still open, you can add information to your report. If the report has been closed and you would like to add additional information, you can start a new report to reactivate the process.

If your report includes a matter of safety or violence involving another person and the University feels it is necessary to contact that person, the University may attempt to check in with you first to assess any concerns over doing so.