Talk:Scott Kurashige

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Conflict of Interest edit request

This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered.

What I think should be changed:

Current sentence: "In 2013 Kurashige was removed as head of the program following allegations of bullying after he criticized the school’s treatment of students and faculty of color; he left the University of Michigan in 2014.[4]"

Requested change

"In 2013 Kurashige was removed as head of the program after he criticized the school’s treatment of students and faculty of color. The University of Michigan's United Asian American Organizations charged the university with forcing him out of his position in a discriminatory manner. The university denied this allegation. He left the University of Michigan in 2014.[4]"

Why it should be changed:

The original statement is not factually correct and is not supported by the source that is cited in footnote.

This is what the original source states: "In 2013, Kurashige, who was then a tenured professor in the department of American culture at Michigan, was removed as director of the Asian/Pacific Islander American-studies program."

There is nothing in the cited source indicating that an allegation (substantiated or unsubstantiated) of "bullying" precipitated or even preceded Kurashige's removal as "head of the program." There is no evidence of any formal university hearing or complaint process which reviewed any allegation of "bullying"--let alone argued that such an allegation warranted removal as director. By contrast, a coalition of Asian American student organizations stated that the removal was an act of discrimination by the university.

As noted in the cited source, the subject only arose later because Kurashige charged in a subsequent lawsuit that the chair of the department accused of discriminating used the "bullying" allegation to retaliate against him. But the cited article is not a reliable or complete source of information to discuss such an allegation; its author admits that she could not properly evaluate the allegation because full information and context was not available while it was the subject (at the time of publication) of pending litigation.

References supporting the possible change (format using the "cite" button):

The original source for footnote 4: Mangan, Katherine (March 28, 2018). "When Accusations of Incivility Spell Doom for Faculty Members". Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2021-10-18.

Emma Stein, "Trial for discrimination lawsuit against ‘U’ begins," December 2, 2019, Michigan Daily, https://www.michigandaily.com/news/administration/trial-for-discrimination-lawsuit-against-u-begins/

50.46.230.210 (talk) 05:59, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your request above.

A few issues...

1) Please clarify your conflict of interest here, as required under the relevant policy: WP:DISCLOSE.

2) Unfortunately the source currently in the article seems to be behind a paywall so it is impossible to establish the overall context in which Kurashige is mentioned. Could you provide more text from that source?

3) I am to some extent reluctant to made a change based on a report stating that a lawsuit was beginning five years ago. I have located the following source [1] which doesn't mention any bullying allegation but does show that the outcome was that the jury sided with the university in the discrimination case. Therefore I'm not sure it is reasonable to include the requested text, i.e. The University of Michigan's United Asian American Organizations charged the university with forcing him out of his position in a discriminatory manner. The university denied this allegation without some indication of the outcome of the case.

4) I've made a fairly lengthy examination of the online coverage of the trial. I cannot locate any reference to bullying. The only passage that I can find that may allude to anything of that nature is in the source above, where it says [LSA junior Anna] Dang said one part of the trial that stood out to her was how the University tried to discredit Lawsin and Kurashige. Whether that statement is correct, or what the attempts to discredit may have involved, is essentially irrelevant from a Wikipedia standpoint because further clarification could only be sought in the court records, which (again from a Wikipedia standpoint) are not an admissible published source.

So, my feeling at present is that..

(a) the mention of bullying in the Wikipedia article would appear to be unsubstantiated unless it is clarified in the paywalled source.

and (b) the description of the legal action in the edit request above appears to be incomplete (and arguably not from a neutral point of view) because it doesn't clarify the outcome of the action.

Please note that I take no sides on the issue under discussion, I'm just expressing my opinion on how it should be reflected in the Wikipedia article based on the coverage in available sources.

I'd be grateful for your thoughts on whether what I have said above is a fair reflection of the situation.

Kind regards, Axad12 (talk) 11:22, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

To the COI editor: when ready to proceed with Axad12's requested feedback, kindly change the {{Edit COI}} template's answer parameter to read from |ans=y to |ans=n. Thank you! Regards, Spintendo 11:29, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]