A former Slippery Rock University professor is suing 15 of his previous students for allegedly making false claims against him and hurting his reputation in a complaint from the students to the school.

Yili Tseng was an assistant professor at Slippery Rock University who taught a computer science ethics class of 25 students in the fall of 2019 at Slippery Rock University. Over the course of the semester, the lawsuit contends, conflicts arose between many of the students and Tseng that ultimately led to him filing the lawsuit.

Along the way, students filed complaints against Tseng and by the end of the school year this past spring, Tseng lost his job at the school.

In a recent court filing in Butler County court, Tseng is asking a judge for monetary compensation for what he claims were false complaints made by the students “for the purpose of willfully and maliciously injuring (Tseng's) reputation.”

Tseng also blames the complaints for the school's decision to not renew his contract at the end of his first year as a teacher there, according to the suit.

SRU confirmed that Tseng was a professor there and that the school declined to renew his contract, but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing litigation.

Tseng filed a motion pro se — without the aid of an attorney — against his former students. A similar suit was originally filed in federal court, but Tseng later withdrew it after a judge recommended the matter would be best addressed by the state.

In Tseng's suit, he also notes that he has had difficulty finding a new job because of the coronavirus.

On Nov. 15, 2019, Tseng's students filed an academic complaint against him, citing several alleged grievances in his class, including claims that Tseng did not speak English and that he didn't actually teach. Tseng disputes all of these claims in his lawsuit.

That same day, one of the students, a female, filed a gender discrimination complaint against Tseng. An investigation into the complaint was conducted by the school's Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunities, according to the suit.

The investigation was closed May 6 after finding no violation of the school's discrimination policy. Tseng contends in the suit that the complaint was filed by a female student who knew the allegations were false and filed it anyway to hurt Tseng's reputation.

As a first-year instructor, Tseng had to undergo an evaluation by the school between January and February. The evaluation was done by three people from the Department Evaluation Committee. The three-person panel decided not to renew Tseng's contract.

On March 31, with classes moving online, another student complained of Tseng's online teaching as being low quality but, according to the lawsuit, the student did not provide any evidence. Tseng cites this as another example of defamation.

In response to the suit, an online fundraiser was created to help the students hire attorneys to defend them in the case. The fundraiser was started by Jana Asher, an assistant professor of mathematics and statistics at SRU.

“As a result of this lawsuit, they are amassing significant legal fees,” Asher wrote in the fundraiser page on GoFundMe.

Asher notes that for one of the students, the retainer fee for a lawyer has already cost them $5,000. She writes that the costs needed to defend themselves will not be easy to bear for at least one of the students, who comes from a lower to middle-income family.

The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Michael Yaeger, but the defendants haven't filed responses yet.