Two students who were active in calling for reform in the way the University of Rochester handled the sexual harassment allegations against Professor Florian Jaeger spoke to WXXI about their reaction to the just-released report that was put together by an outside law firm.
Lindsay Wrobel felt so strong about the issue that at one point last year, she went on a hunger strike.
She feels the report released Thursday doesn’t take the complaints of those who made the accusations seriously.
“The onus of the department’s environment lies on the person who harassed his colleagues not on those who were harassed and had the gall to come forward.” Wrobel also said that, “the objective of this was to vindicate the university and was not to elevate the voices of the most vulnerable population which is the graduate students and the undergraduate students and the members of the community at the U of R.”
Jenna Register is a student and a lab manager in the same department Professor Florian Jaeger worked in. She doesn’t see the report released by Mary Jo White as having a lot of positive impact at this point.
“I think they are left with maybe a slap on the wrist on the department and then a, ‘now what?’ We are still, as they like to say, ‘fractured,’ and there is still this turmoil and professors are still leaving and there’s still this broken policy; all of these things are still there, plus a slap on the wrist.”
Register and Wrobel are among those who have scheduled a protest at the U of R campus, next Friday, January 19th at 1:00 p.m.
Copyright 2018 WXXI News
