Talk:Scott Kurashige

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles

California Low‑importance

	California portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject California, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CaliforniaWikipedia:WikiProject CaliforniaTemplate:WikiProject CaliforniaCalifornia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Asian Americans Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Asian Americans, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Asian Americans on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Asian AmericansWikipedia:WikiProject Asian AmericansTemplate:WikiProject Asian AmericansAsian Americans articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Conflict of Interest edit request

The user below has a request that an edit be made to Scott Kurashige. That user has an actual or apparent conflict of interest.
The requested edits backlog is very low. There are currently 31 requests waiting for review.

Please read the instructions for the parameters used by this template for accepting and declining them, and review the request below and make the edit if it is well sourced, neutral, and follows other Wikipedia guidelines and policies.

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]

References