UR complaint highlights inevitable power play in graduate education

Crisis at UR stretches beyond campus

Lauren Peace Brian Sharp
Democrat and Chronicle

In the days after a federal complaint alleged that the University of Rochester had protected a noted professor and "manipulative sexual predator" — even going so far as to retaliate against the complainants — UR President Joel Seligman sought to contain the crisis, "turn the page and cleanse the air."  

Jessica Cantlon, associate professor, and Celeste Kidd, assistant professor, in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester talk about the sexual harassment allegations against professor Florian Jaeger, the University of Rochester's response and some of the side repercussions like how it has affected the science.

But that was not to be.

"This is a crisis," Seligman recently acknowledged in a closed session with UR faculty, "and it is different in kind than any of us have faced." 

And that crisis continues to grow. Three more women affiliated with UR's prestigious Brain and Cognitive Sciences department have now come forward, according to Jef McAllister, managing partner with McAllister Olivarius, the complainants’ legal team — bringing the total alleged victims to 14. 

T. Florian Jaeger

The case of noted psycholinguistics professor T. Florian Jaeger has resonated across the nation and around the world — leaving UR to defend not only its actions, and shore up lost confidence among faculty, staff and students but also to repair its reputation.

Harry Gu, a UR student, holds a poster with cartoon of Joel Seligman on it during a protest Wednesday over  dissatisfaction of UR's handling of sexual harassment allegations against professor.

Most troubling is what the scandal has revealed — that what is alleged to have occurred in the university's prestigious BCS department is not unique. Rather, it is symptomatic of a system that puts graduate students in a subservient position to faculty empowered as teacher, adviser, boss, examiner, research supervisor and singularly powerful reference for future employment. 

"In light of recent events, both students and colleagues are telling many of us that they have come to expect sexual harassment to be a ‘normal’ and unavoidable part of academic life," read an open letter to the Linguistic Society of America.

The letter was in response to the Jaeger case but not limited to it, said LSA executive director Alyson Reed. It was signed by 1,100 academics and professionals from across the United States — and at least two dozen other countries.

An estimated one in 10 female graduate students at top U.S. universities report being sexually harassed by faculty, researchers have found. The harassment tends to be not just verbal but physical. Offenders often are serial harassers. Public attention has focused most intently on impacts in scientific disciplines.

Jaeger — in complaints first raised by Richard Aslin, a renowned researcher who helped create and lead BCS — is accused of having sexual relationships and using illegal drugs with students, making inappropriate, humiliating or condescending comments to and about female students and faculty, pressuring them to meet with him alone, and conditioning access with being part of his social circle.

More:Seligman says UR erred in promoting Jaeger, prestigious program 'broken'

More:Faculty member, grad student added to committee overseeing UR sexual harassment inquiry

"The lives and careers of BCS graduate students became Jaeger's personal playground," reads a 111-page federal Equal Employment Opportunity Complaint filed by Aslin and seven other current and former faculty and students.

Jaeger sent the Democrat and Chronicle an email Friday afternoon in response to several inquiries. 

"As soon as I became aware of the EEOC complaint, I let my students know that I will continue to support them financially in the same way as I have previously, even if they choose to work with an other adviser," the statement said. 

He added, "I made them aware that (there) will likely be a strong public reaction based on the allegations before I would even have a chance to reply to those allegations in a venue that respects due process, and where I can defend myself without violating the need for confidentiality that protects alleged victims and witnesses."

UR has found the initial claims without merit. But its early response, particularly efforts intended to heal divisions, raised troubling claims of retaliation and contributed to departures that threaten to decimate the department.

University trustees appointed a special committee of its members back on Sept. 19, and hired high-powered special investigator Mary Jo White, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and past chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Seligman has largely been sidelined, a move he said was mutually agreed upon with trustees "given concerns raised about a potential lack of objectivity in any administration-sponsored effort." He has pledged an investigation free from interference by the administration or UR trustees.

On Thursday, the special committee announced it would add a faculty and graduate student members, and that the investigative findings report would be made public, unedited, the same day it is received.

In Seligman’s meeting with the Faculty Senate, also on Sept. 19, he said the forthcoming investigation would be "highly unbounded," opening the door to it also taking on a separate sexual harassment and retaliation complaint emanating from UR's renowned Eastman School of Music.

More:UR places Florian Jaeger on leave in harassment case

More:Hunger strike ends as UR professor Florian Jaeger placed on administrative leave

In the room during that faculty meeting were at least two of Jaeger's alleged victims, Celeste Kidd and Jessica Cantlon. At one point, Seligman addressed them directly.

"I apologize to you," he said, according to confidential draft meeting minutes obtained and verified by the Democrat and Chronicle. "It is the case that we have a ways to go, but if your claims are totally vindicated in the review that Mary Jo White conducts, I’ll be the first to fully support that."

Jessica Cantlon is an associate professor in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester.

Faculty Senate meetings are closed to the general public. When the Democrat and Chronicle offered Seligman the chance to confirm, correct or amend his remarks, he responded via email, "I will not comment on a confidential document. I regret that the regular order of our Faculty Senate appears to have been violated by the public release of these minutes."

'Without regard for science'

As Becca Canale, a third-year undergraduate student in UR's BCS program, walked into her psycholinguistics seminar on the first day of class back in August, she prepared herself for the semester ahead.

The course, taught by Jaeger, was a general requirement for her degree, and she was excited to learn what the semester had to offer. 

"I didn't actually know Jaeger too much before this year, but I do have multiple friends who were his advisees. He's very much a part of our department," said Canale. "I had heard that he was a professor known for sleeping with grad students through friends in the department, but nothing to the same extent of what's come out since."

Celeste Kidd is an assistant professor in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department at the University of Rochester.

Canale described Jaeger's demeanor on that first day as "a little forward," alluding to his use of crude comments and foul language.

"I think it was probably just him trying to be a cool professor, but it was a little weird, especially on the first day," she said.

Rebecca Handsman, another student in the class, echoed Canale's description of Jaeger's demeanor. Both students work as research assistants in Kidd's lab.

That day marked the only appearance Jaeger would make in front of a class before the allegations against him were made public, forcing him to step down from teaching and resulting in administrative leave.

The decision on administrative leave was made jointly, after a series of institutional choices that critics say compromised the safety and comfort of its students and staff, the university’s standing, and an entire field of research.

"Decisions were made without regard for science," said Kidd.

At the height of its success, UR’s Brain and Cognitive Sciences department was regarded as one of the top sites in the country, ranking fourth in the nation by the National Research Council.  The innovative domain differed from those at other universities because of its multidisciplinary makeup, which recruited faculty and students with backgrounds not only in cognitive science and psychology, but also neuroscience, and provided a collaborative home for seasoned experts and rising stars whose interests danced the line of the two fields.

University leaders believe keeping that together is important. Said Seligman: "The department is broken, and the question of how it is revitalized is of urgent consequence."

Jenna Register, Shirlene Wade and Lindsay Wrobel speaks to a gathering of UR students during a protest Wednesday over  dissatisfaction of UR's handling of sexual harassment allegations against professor.

"I unrelentingly have encouraged every administrator to whom I spoke to try to retain every faculty member in BCS, without exception," Seligman said. "I wanted no one to leave." 

No one else, maybe. Three of the seven complainants already have left, and four others are considering following suit. 

"We had everything going for us. We had great labs, great students and great colleagues," said Cantlon, who said that she, too, is actively looking for faculty positions at other universities. "It was special. Our labs were thriving. Now we have to shut it all down and build it up somewhere else."

Teddi Shapiro comforts Sarah Elderkin, both UR students, during a protest over  dissatisfaction of UR's handling of sexual harassment allegations against professor.

Kidd remains, for now, but is unable to complete portions of her research, she said, because of the departures. Her primary collaborators were Aslin, who set up one of the world's only baby brain imaging centers before resigning in December 2016, and Dr. Ben Hayden, whose work provides an important link between basic cognitive and neuroscience research. He left this past summer.

UR counter-offered Hayden late, and Aslin not at all, according to the complaint.

"I invested 33 years in the university and had many collaborations and friends," said Aslin, a National Academy of Sciences member. "I wasn’t looking to leave. We weren’t planning on leaving. Someday we might have, but that day came earlier than expected."

According to Aslin, the handling of the situation by the university made little sense, especially given the stature of the complainants, who have brought in tens of millions of dollars in grant money and scientific prestige, as stated in the document submitted to the EEOC.

Laura Cowie-Haskell, a UR student, during a protest Wednesday over  dissatisfaction of UR's handling of sexual harassment allegations against professor.

When Hayden left for the University of Minnesota, lab technicians, students and post-docs, followed, including Priyanka Mehta, a second-year graduate student in his lab.

"I applied for Ben’s research," Mehta said, "and there’s nobody else in the department who does what he does."

Research is currency

One chooses a graduate program based on its prestige and the ability to work with supporting expertise in their field. In the STEM fields, particularly, students look at individual faculty and what research they are doing.

Research papers are currency in academia. Getting published increases your stature and advances your career. In the early going, a faculty adviser helps students navigate and submit their research and build contacts. Should that relationship sour, the switch to someone else could mean changing the direction of study, dumping years of research and forgoing published work, or losing a prominent reference.

In the EEOC complaint that was filed Aug. 30, Kidd alleged sexual harassment by Jaeger, her then-superior, that she said continued for years because of the substantial power differential that existed between them.

It's a recognized and often normalized facet of graduate education, one with roots deep within the constructs of academia that is vulnerable to abuse of power, manipulation of student researchers and sexual harassment.

That vulnerability arises because doctoral candidates, particularly those in scientific fields, spend years working in close proximity and under the supervision of one primary faculty member, according to a study published this past May in the Journal of Legal Education titled "Mapping the Title IX Iceberg: Sexual Harassment (Mostly) in Graduate School by College Faculty.” And because that adviser determines whether or not to grant their Ph.D., these students are extremely susceptible to situations of abuse, and often are reluctant to report it for fear of retaliation.

University of Rochester President Joel Seligman, shown here at the UR staff awards in Helen Wood Hall on April 21, 2014.

"You're working with a professor that really determines everything about your graduate career," said Stephen Ferrigno, a fourth-year grad student in the BCS department at UR. "They determine whether you pass your classes, your qualifying exams and the fate of your progression through the program."

Cantlon, one of the complainants to come forward with Kidd, is Ferrigno's adviser.

The complaint draws on others’ experiences at UR, specifically that of a former graduate piano student at Eastman School of Music.

In the Eastman case, a federal appellate court in June affirmed dismissal of Joseph Irrera’s claim of sexual harassment, largely on the basis that it was brought after the statute of limitations had expired. But the court cleared the way for him to proceed with an allegation of retaliation. 

Irrera claimed that while pursuing his doctorate in music arts (2009-14) he rejected unwanted advances from his teacher, Douglas Humphreys, chairman of the piano department. Humphreys allegedly retaliated, failing him on back-to-back recitals just months before he won the America Protégé International Competition and performed at Carnegie Hall (for the second time) and, in a recorded conversation, threatening Irrera that he would never get a job. 

Irrera said he was warned by a college dean that future employers would seek out Humphreys for a reference and school officials couldn’t protect him. He applied to 28 colleges and universities after graduation, court papers show. None called back. He sued, naming Humphreys and UR. 

The district court ruled it was speculative to blame Humphreys, but the appellate court found it sufficiently plausible, noting Irrera “is a graduate of one of the nation’s most highly regarded schools of music.”

UR undertakes 50 or 60 investigations each year of employees accused of discrimination and harassment. Between 30 percent and 50 percent of those relate to sex or gender as the protected class, as opposed to race, national origin or other areas, according to UR General Counsel Gail Norris.

It was not known how many involve graduate students.

The terms upon which you receive a Ph.D. are vague from the beginning. The incredibly loose structure can be beneficial and allow the student to pursue the research they are most interested in, said Wednesday Bushong, a third-year grad student and member of Jaeger's lab. But it can get complicated if the adviser starts abusing their power.

Bushong said that was not her experience with Jaeger.

"One of the biggest struggles is that you never really know how well you're doing, and it's not clear what happens if you're deemed to not be making good progress," she said.

In his email on Friday, Jaeger addressed his continued commitment to his students: "I will try my best to continue to support my students/post-docs research and careers, and to help them navigate the uncertainties of the current situation. I feel that this is at least one small part that I can do for them."

Whatever the outcome at UR, the research of Bushong and others is forever connected to Jaeger. What becomes of his career going forward is unclear. But faculty at other institutions have been reaching out, and publicly voicing support for the affected students, Bushong said. 

All this started with concerns that a man wasn’t valuing women based on their work. Wouldn’t it be ironic, she said, if people in the field didn’t value their work based on the man. 

'A learning experience'

The question of how to mend and revitalize the Brain and Cognitive Science department is “of urgent consequence,” Seligman told faculty.

More importantly, however, "these are moral issues," he said, "and this is our culture."

Beyond the potential loss in university reputation, is a more damaging ramification for the institution's most vulnerable members, and an indicative demonstration of why, perhaps, a vast majority of instances of sexual harassment and assault go unreported.

Meredith Hastings, an associate professor at Brown University, is co-principal investigator on a $1.1 million National Science Foundation grant to combat sexual harassment on college campuses and in her field of earth and environmental science.

From what she's read of the UR case, Hastings said  she has concerns about the impact on those considering reporting their own encounters with sexual harassment and assault. 

"The issue is society wide. There's a tendency to question the motives of the victims instead of the validity of the accusations," Hastings said. "There's a lot of discussion about why people don't come forward, or why they take so long to do so. If as a victim you're going to be victimized by the public, why would you?"

In the case at UR, Kidd said it took her nearly a decade, until she was a tenured faculty member with the support of colleagues, to be in a position where she felt safe enough to come forward. But she said students still hold the same risks in doing so that she held years ago.

The handling of Kidd's case has led Handsman, a third-year undergraduate student in the BCS program, to second-guess her dream of going to grad school.

"Right after this happened, I was very scared. Celeste is so accomplished and so young, and she does a lot of what I want to do," Handsman said. "My sister is in grad school right now (at a different university), and she said that the same stuff happens."

At the Linguistic Society, Reed points to a different type of scandal, that of child sex abuse in Penn State athletics. That first hit the news in March 2011, but remains top of mind today and, Reed said, “certainly has changed people’s perceptions about Penn State.”

Seligman insisted White’s investigation, the commission on gender — which he expects to position UR as “the national leader in supporting our faculty, students and staff” — all should provide assurance that UR is taking matters seriously.

Faculty and students are working to select members for the promised Commission on Women and Gender. The group should be announced and begin meeting in the coming weeks, a UR spokeswoman said, with a final report expected no later than April 30.

“Let’s be fair,” Seligman said. “This is the kind of issue which happens at a lot of institutions from time to time. Crises happen. No one wants them, no one plans for them. The real measure of an institution is how you respond to them.”

That is not to say that UR didn’t attempt to address, diffuse or otherwise head off what one faculty member described as “something horribly embarrassing." There were efforts made "over a sustained period of time," Seligman said: “And this is, to put it mildly, a learning experience.”

“At this point in time I would say the university is going to have to do something more proactive,” said Ray Martino, a lecturer at Nazareth College and one of the founders of Martino Flynn, whose career in public relations focused on crisis communications. “Now they are in an image repair mode.

"It isn’t just apologizing. It’s showing the public that we are going to do something differently.”

LPEACE@Gannett.com

BDSHARP@Gannett.com

 

Background

T. Florian Jaeger, 41, joined UR as an assistant professor in 2007. 

He came highly recommended from Stanford and the University of California San Diego, considered a rising star in the specialized field of psycholinguistics. Essentially a mashup of psychology and linguistics, the field has been adopting a more computational not just experiential approach, and Jaeger was at the forefront of that research.

The complaints started in 2016, first raised by Richard Aslin, an established, well-respected academic and former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who helped create and lead the BCS department.  

"Jaeger slept with so many students at UR or other institutions, and made passes at so many others, that his penchant for having sex with graduate students became well known among Ph.D.s and post-docs," the complaint states.

UR investigated, promoted Jaeger to full professor over Aslin's objections, cleared Jaeger of any wrongdoing, then allegedly retaliated against Aslin and the complainants when they appealed. Aslin joined with seven other prominent researchers to file an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint on Aug. 30. The case was first reported by Mother Jones the following week. The EEOC has cleared the way for at least one of the complainants to file a lawsuit.

Jaeger agreed to administrative leave saying in a statement that it was not an admission of guilt. Aslin since left and now is working at Yale.