Talk:New Mexico State University

Sexual abuse case

@Alamo NM why did you revert the edit about sexual assault at NM during hazing rituals? Deuce Benjamin was awarded $4.125 million and Shak Odunewu got $3.875 million. The source is given; this is relevant information. -- Melchior2006 (talk) 18:32, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Lawsuits

@Melchior, I would frame the pile of lawsuits as a Title IX/civil rights/discrimination issue, as all of these were brought by women over gender issues. The Kinesiology lawsuit would fit in there because letting a known sexually aggressive faculty member carry for years regardless of all complaints is gender discrimination. The sports team related lawsuits might fit ("they are young men, let them carry on") or not, and then there's that one related to the death of a young man at a party house owned by the former soccer coach. 73.228.28.17 (talk) 18:52, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

My question would be about whether the new section's content really has a thematic connection or not. It seems like it might devolve into a sort of "Hall of Shame," which would be inappropriate. Also, I am not sure about the connections between the sports-related cases because they are disparate, off-campus, not really related to sport, unless of course the death at the former soccer coach's house can be placed in some relation to football? I'm not sure about that yet. Let me know what you think. -- Melchior2006 (talk) 06:09, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

Were the lawsuits successful? Did they have any lasting impact on the university? I ask because we typically shouldn't typically include information about unsuccessful lawsuits or those that had no lasting impact. For one, anyone in the U.S. can file lawsuits for any reason, including completely frivolous reasons and cases without merit. Moreover, even successful lawsuits can have little or no lasting impact on an organization raising questions about WP:DUE. ElKevbo (talk) 13:50, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

The answer would be yes, to both questions: Laura Castile settled for 60 kUSD in her case, a standard amount in a discrimination/unfair dismissal case, but Provost Parker and Professor Osanloo settled for 500 kUSD each. Those two suits must really really have merit because of the way above average payout. Inside Higher Education has a piece quoting the lawyer representing one of the parties: 'Gubernick, an attorney for Castille, told the newspaper, "This is people trying to remove checks and balances. This is like Game of Thrones–type stuff."'

OK, fine - he is a lawyer and trying to make business for himself, but the matter does speak for itself: three successful discrimination lawsuits plus the ongoing Kinesiology sex abuse case in two years bespeaks a dysfunctional work environment with HR asleep at the wheel. NMSU is a large employer, but one does not normally see that sort and that number of cases.

And yes, there have been leadership changes - Provost Shoho was hired to improve the internal climate, but he failed and is now out. Provost Parker was pushed out over highlighting salary discrepancies between men and women, and Castile, then director of the Equity Office was fired over questionable hiring practices by the upper administration. The general feeling, as articulated by the Chronicle of Higher Education and local newsmedia is that there is a management crisis. 73.228.28.17 (talk) 17:07, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Refrain from rumors and gossip

Every campus has rumors and gossip. No need for this type of vandalism on a wikipedia page. Alamo NM (talk) 20:04, 18 April 2024 (UTC)