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Report: UR Faculty Senate tables motion to censure Florian Jaeger

The Faculty Senate at the University of Rochester reportedly has tabled a motion of censure against Professor Florian Jaeger, following a meeting that began late Tuesday afternoon. The action follows allegations that he sexually harassed several current and former faculty members and grad students.

The motion came after an independent investigation commissioned by UR basically found that Jaeger did not violate university policies, although it criticized some of his earlier behavior as being inappropriate.

TheD&C reports that the motion was tabled for further consideration.

In a statement provided to WXXI News on Tuesday by Jaeger’s lawyer, a woman who identifies herself as Chigusa Kurumada, Jaeger’s domestic partner and an assistant professor in his department, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, talks about what she says has been “an extremely difficult position” throughout the process.

She says the greatest damage she experienced stemmed from the way the allegations against Jaeger “belittled my professional achievements and asserted that I was hired only because of my relationship to Florian.”

Kurumada also says she was the only woman not given a pseudonym in the EEOC complaint, and says it is “nerve-wracking” to consider the damage the situation has had on her career.

Celeste Kidd, one of the more outspoken people who have been part of the EEOC complaint as well as a lawsuit, says that it is important to remember that there were more than a dozen women whose professional lives were severely harmed by Jaeger’s behavior.

Kidd says that those involved in making the complaint tried internally to work on it for more than a year, but when nothing happened, they decided they had to file with the EEOC and go public with their allegations.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.