The Faculty Senate censured Professor T. Florian Jaeger last Tuesday, formally condemning his alleged sexual misconduct between 2007 and 2013 “in the strongest terms.”
The motion, one of two passed at that meeting and provided to the Campus Times, said Jaeger’s “behavior resulted in significant harm to students, the affected department, and the broader University community.”
It went on to pledge that the Faculty Senate would take a leadership role in implementing the recommendations of the UR-commissioned investigative report, released in January, examining the school’s handling of complaints against Jaeger.
That report found that the University had done a sufficient, if flawed, job of addressing Jaeger’s workplace sexual conduct.
In a statement released the same day, Steven Modica, Jaeger’s lawyer, called the censure an “alarming rush to judgement.”
“The Faculty Senate vote to censure is the result of an alarming rush to judgment. It was based on emotion, rumor, and a well-designed public relations campaign on the part of the complainants,” Modica said, adding later, “Morals change. Facts do not. The facts in this case compel the conclusion that Florian Jaeger should not have been censured by the University of Rochester Faculty Senate.”
The censure has no tangible effect, but marks the strongest formal response Jaeger has received from his colleagues since controversy over his behavior sparked mass protests this past fall.
The Faculty Senate’s second motion protested the search and sharing of faculty members emails by members of UR’s Office of Counsel.
“This search and sharing occurred without sufficient justification, reflected ‘questionable judgment,’ and was inconsistent with the guidelines for confidentiality found in HR Policy 106,” the motion said. “It has damaged the faculty’s trust in the administration to uphold reasonable expectations of privacy.”
