A student at the University of Rochester has vowed not to eat until the school fires a professor who has been accused of sex harassment by seven faculty members and multiple students — who allege he threw wild, drugged-out hot tub parties and pressured female students into sex.
The professor, Dr. Florian Jaeger of the university’s brain and cognitive sciences department, even once emailed an unwanted photo of his genitals, according to allegations, made in a complaint filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The hunger-striking student, Lindsay Wrobel, says she hasn’t eaten since midnight Thursday — in hopes of getting Jaeger ousted, she told the Fox affiliate in Rochester.
“It is painful and it is scary, thinking about what comes next,” Wrobel told Fox on Saturday night, as she neared her third full day without food.
“I’ve had nausea, I’ve had headaches, I’ve had muscle aches really bad. Anytime I do anything, like texting feels like work,” she said.
On Aug. 30, Wrobel and seven current and former professors filed an EEOC complaint alleging sexual harassment by Jaeger.
A copy of the complaint is included in a 113-page letter sent Sept. 1 to the university’s board of trustees by two former professors demanding changes in the school’s procedures for reporting, investigating and punishing sex harassment on campus.
The EEOC complaint alleged that Jaeger has shown a “long pattern of sexually predatory behavior at the University of Rochester.”
He “relentlessly pursued and engaged in numerous sexual relationships with BCS [Brain and Cognitive Studies] and visiting students, which he flaunted,” the EEOC complaint alleged.
“He had unprotected sex with students, sent unwanted photographs of his genitalia to a female student, [and] lamented to others that he might have sexually transmitted diseases,” the EEOC complaint alleged.
“He used illegal drugs with students and hosted hot tub parties,” according to the complaint.
Female students subjected to his crude comments “got the sense that their discomfort excited him,” the complaint alleged.
The letter also alleges, “The University chose to filter, distort, and cover up the facts” of the multiple complaints against Jaeger, and “to deny the veracity of the complaints of 7 faculty members and 11 students, to disparage those of us who brought forward the complaint, and then to further retaliate against us when we refused to back down — all with the purpose of protecting a serial harasser.”
Additionally, 150 students protested at the school last week, and a Change.org petition to remove Jaeger had some 7,500 signatures by Sunday.
Jaeger revealed earlier this month that he would not teach this semester, but he remained on the faculty as of Saturday night, according to reports. He could not be reached by The Post for comment Sunday.
Meanwhile, the hunger-striking student insists she will stop eating “until I’m hospitalized.”
University president Joel Seligman on Saturday told WHAM News, ABC’s Rochester affiliate, “I have been in touch with Lindsay to tell her how concerned I am about her and to let her know that my primary concern is her health.
“She has every right to express herself as she chooses, but I urged her to put her well-being first. We are carefully monitoring the situation,” he said.
Seligman has said he will be hiring an outside investigator to look into the sexual harassment claims against Jaeger.