It wasn't just ousted Harvard president Claudine Gay who got caught plagiarizing her academic work. She and another Harvard administrator, DEI administrator Shirley Greene, were discovered to have plagiarized.
For most students, accusations and evidence of plagiarism would spell a swift end to their academic career or -- at a minimum -- failing a class or other consequences. Because plagiarism used to be a serious offense in academica.
Now it's just part of the culture, apparently:
NEW: The chief diversity officer of Columbia University's medical school, Alade McKen, plagiarized extensively in his doctoral dissertation, lifting huge chunks of material without attribution.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
Two pages in the dissertation come directly from Wikipedia.🧵https://t.co/V1cy1vOwe4 pic.twitter.com/UBpTyOWXXT
The chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer of Columbia University's medical school, Alade McKen, plagiarized extensively in his doctoral dissertation, lifting entire pages of material, without attribution, from sources that include Wikipedia, according to a complaint submitted to the university on Wednesday.
The allegations implicate approximately a fifth of McKen's 163-page dissertation, "'UBUNTU' I am because we are: A case study examining the experiences of an African-centered Rites of Passage program within a community-based organization," submitted to Iowa State University's School of Education in 2021. More than two of those pages are a near-verbatim facsimile of Wikipedia's entry on "Afrocentric education," which is not cited anywhere in the dissertation.
Who steals from Wikipedia?
A complaint filed with Columbia yesterday implicates approximately a fifth of McKen's 163-page dissertation. Over two of those pages are a near-verbatim facsimile of Wikipedia's entry on "Afrocentric education," which McKen never cites.https://t.co/fSWrRwbhnB pic.twitter.com/jWGP8Oz3jg
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
Recommended
The worst part is you just have to cite your sources.
But, again, who steals from Wikipedia?
Other pages lift paragraphs from well-known African scholars, including the University of Rwanda's Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu, while making small tweaks to their prose, such as reordering certain clauses or changing a "were" to a "was." pic.twitter.com/17VZpS8ozS
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
We'd be livid if someone stole from our work without citing us.
Some of the scholars McKen allegedly plagiarized appear in the dissertation's bibliography but not in in-text citations. Others, like Ezeanya-Esiobu, an expert on "indigenous knowledge" who has worked with numerous international agencies, aren't cited at all. pic.twitter.com/qvbdoRJI3i
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
This isn't just an oversight and a missed citation. It's intentionally stealing other's work without giving them credit.
"The passages you shared can definitely be classified as plagiarism," Ezeanya-Esiobu told the Washington Free Beacon.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
It is plagiarism. Any college syllabus would say as such, and outline the penalties for it.
McKen lifts pages worth of material from Ezeanya-Esiobu's 2019 chapter "A Faulty Foundation: Historical Origins of Formal Education Curriculum in Africa," published in the Frontiers in African Business Research book series.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
Pages. Worth.
It's a very long thread, and worth the read.
This is going to be a bloodbath in academia, and I suspect at some point they will claim they care more about "diversity" than honesty. https://t.co/y9fWvakRgs
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) February 29, 2024
Oh, absolutely.
Certain groups will get a pass on plagiarism. Because DEI.
Why have so many DEI officers plagiarized their dissertations?
— Peter Boghossian (@peterboghossian) February 29, 2024
The plagarism wars are just beginning. https://t.co/LHd6PBzl1c
Because they don't have an original idea of their own.
This isn't all that surprising when his literal job is to make sure others achieve outcomes they haven't earned either. https://t.co/HYwnOU96sL
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) February 29, 2024
Nailed it.
DEI is a form of academic corruption and many DEI bureaucrats are guilty of academic fraud. Shut it all down. https://t.co/9R3uegiQ2P
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 29, 2024
And they use their DEI positions to wield tremendous power and control over people, including influencing public policy.
And it's all based on fraud.
It's almost like DEI is a scam populated by con-artists. https://t.co/0pq7AjVbiN
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 29, 2024
We're shocked. Shocked, we tell you.
All diversity hires are presumptively incompetent and intellectual thieves https://t.co/0vUo3r3qHZ
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) February 29, 2024
The DEI crowd does more to hurt the people it says it wants to 'help' than anyone could. By putting unqualified people in positions to increase 'diversity' (without consideration of merit or skill), they're making normal people question any hire: is it on merit or is it on diversity? This is a tremendous disservice to the men and women who work hard to achieve success.
And then to have the DEI administrators stealing work from others and presenting it as their own. That's just a *chef's kiss*, really.
Helps explain the contempt DEI apparatchiks have for meritocracy. https://t.co/1yZL9bmlRH
— ryuge (@0ryuge) February 29, 2024
Because they wouldn't cut it.
Plagiarizing one-fifth of your dissertation proves that.
Siri, why have millions of people decided that our sacred institutions are smoldering garbage heaps of fraud, incompetence, and buffoonery? https://t.co/RECzNbPstI
— Cruadin (@cruadin) February 29, 2024
Total mystery. We may never figure it out.
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