Talk:University of Rochester/Archives/2019

Federal Lawsuit

Greetings fellow Wikipedians! For the sake of completeness and transparency, I have added a brief description of the federal lawsuit related to the 2017 EEOC complaint. I am not a party to the lawsuit or the EEOC complaint. Meliora! BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 12:28, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Sorry but I just removed that addition because it was based only on court documents. We generally try to rely on secondary or tertiary sources because that helps us ensure that material is noteworthy i.e., something we should include in an encyclopedia article. I think this is especially true for lawsuits because nearly anyone can file a lawsuit so we need a lot of help figuring out when a lawsuit is important enough to include in an article. ElKevbo (talk) 14:09, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

ElKevBo, I see your point. In response, I'd like to make several points of my own.

You requested some secondary references to support the importance of this lawsuit. I've listed some below. The litigation has attracted substantial media attention - not just in the local media, but also in the academic journal "Nature".

Nature: International Journal of Science: Nine researchers sue University of Rochester over sexual-harassment allegations

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Lawsuit filed in UR's Jaeger sexual harassment case targets President Seligman

13 WHAM - ABC affiliate TV station in Rochester: Federal lawsuit filed against University of Rochester following EEOC complaint

NewYorkUpstate.com: Professor at center of University of Rochester harassment lawsuit to resume teaching

RochesterFirst.com: Professor who was key figure in harassment lawsuit against UR resigns

Wikipedians have already deemed the 2017 US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint important enough to include in this article. Since that is the case, this lawsuit deserves to be included as well. The litigation concerns many of the same events that were the subject of the EEOC complaint. The lawsuit addresses many of the same issues regarding the university's response to those events, and names many of the same parties as the complaint. To mention the complaint without mentioning the federal lawsuit would be inconsistent and lacking in transparency about the serious challenges facing the university in the area of how it has handled sexual misconduct.

I would be happy to add the media coverage citations listed above to the text I wrote about the lawsuit. If I do that, would you agree that we can replace the language about the lawsuit which you removed?

I am not a party to, or involved in any way with, this litigation or the EEOC complaint. I am, however, an alumnus of The University of Rochester. Meliora! BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 19:46, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Sounds good! ElKevbo (talk) 21:53, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Where did the information that the case is in mediation come from? None of the news articles said so, and the original court document was flagged in Dec 2017 it looks like, but the docket here https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6282968/aslin-v-university-of-rochester/ has stuff being argued in court since then. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.151.150.2 (talk) 15:43, 29 April 2019 (UTC)

The source is shown in reference #61 - "Official Court Electronic Document Filing System". U.S. District Court, Western District of New York. Retrieved 19 March 2019. That site is down at the moment, but I'll check later today to see if the case status has changed. BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 11:59, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Court's web site is back online. The Case History shows "automatic referral to mediation" filed on Dec. 11, 2017. It also shows 9-10 filings in the past 6 weeks so. I haven't reviewed those filings but I assume they are related to the mediation process. As of today, the Case Summary is still flagged as "Mediation" so I am assuming that is still accurate. If you have a different interpretation, please let me know. I am not a party to, or involved in any way with, this litigation or the EEOC complaint. I am, however, an alumnus of The University of Rochester. Meliora! Cordially, BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 01:09, 1 May 2019 (UTC)