"Noose" Professor Charged With Plagiarism
Columbia University Says Black Teacher Who Found Noose On Office Door Took Work Of Others
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Professor Madonna G. Constantine speaks at a protest rally at Teachers College at Columbia University, one day after a hangman's noose was discovered on her office door at the college, in this Oct. 10, 2007, file photo in New York. (AP Photo/Diane Bondafeff)
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The university's Teachers College announced Wednesday it had imposed "serious sanctions" against Constantine following a lengthy investigation it said uncovered "numerous instances in which she used others' work without attribution in papers she published in academic journals over the past five years."
Constantine's lawyer, Paul J. Giacomo Jr., said his client could prove her innocence and called the school's investigation "extremely underhanded from the beginning." He said he would appeal the sanctions, which neither side would disclose.
The inquiry into Constantine, an education and psychology professor who has written extensively about race, was launched in 2006, long before the noose was discovered this past October, the school said.
"The investigators found a real pattern - two dozen instances of similar language from three people who came forward separately," Teachers College spokeswoman Marcia Horowitz said. "Dr. Constantine's explanation was not credible."
In a written statement, Constantine said she had been subjected to "a conspiracy and witch-hunt by certain current and former members of the Teachers College community."
Her lawyer said she had "clearly" been targeted because of her race, and he said he believed the noose incident and the plagiarism investigation might be linked.
"There's been an effort to intimidate my client, that's clear," Giacomo said.
Horowitz dismissed Giacomo's claims, saying "it is both absurd and untrue that racism had anything to do with this report."
"Teacher's College has zero tolerance for racism, discrimination or prejudice of any kind," she said.
Columbia said some of the plagiarized work was written by Christine Yeh, a former colleague of Constantine's who is now with the University of San Francisco.
“I’m really hopeful other people will come forward now,” Yeh told The New York Times. “When the initial charges were made, there were many students involved who didn’t feel they could follow up. They were too scared, and they were afraid of retribution.”
When Constantine's colleagues discovered the noose, a symbol of lynchings in the Deep South, hanging from her office door, the incident roiled the Ivy League campus and gained national attention.
Police at the time ruled out any possibility that Constantine had hung the rope herself. A few weeks later, a swastika was discovered on the door of a Jewish professor at Teachers College.
Investigators have yet to make an arrest in either incident.
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See all 90 CommentsPosted by hoygie7
Yup. It worked for Billary. Right Hoygie?
Posted by hoygie7
Yup, that''s what all paranoid schizophrenics say.
hoygie7, you poor sad sack, wrong is wrong. Why don''t you do something nice for someone today? You''ll feel much better.
Peace and Love
(Eyes rolling) Isn''t that the pot calling the kettle.............well you know..
Posted by advanceus at 09:54 AM : Feb 21, 2008
Good question! This type of media circus draws Sharpton like flies to ***. I better figure out where I put my remote control...
this conservative fodder,, much like the troops in Iraq
So when was the last time you heard an Irish man ask for his retribution?
When I got my last degree, there were almost half a dozen foreign students in one of my calculus courses who, after the first test, stopped showing up regularly.
They did show up for subsequent tests, and clustered around me and blatantly copied my exams %u2013 which the professor studiously avoided noticing.
It ticked me off - so on the final, I sat clear at the back of the classroom so they wouldn''t have room to sit behind me. What did they do? It was one of those classrooms that is actually part of a larger classroom subdivided by one of those retractable curtain gizmos. They opened the curtain so they could still sit behind me! Again, the professor studiously looked away.
So I took an approach to solving one problem that was substantially different from what had been taught in class, believing that the professor would not ignore six or more identical non-standard solutions. I get a note on my final that says something to the effect "Unique solution approach", but again nothing happens to the foreign students.
I am eventually informed that such behavior was %u201Cunofficially%u201D acceptable because the university ''needed the cash'' the foreign students provided, and as they ''helped fund'' the educations of Americans who did not have the financial resources themselves I should hush up.
Sheesh. Mea culpa for noticing.
Posted by ibsteve2u at 11:43 AM : Feb 21, 2008
Now you know, in part, why I am so angry that Bill Clinton enabled and encouraged the offshoring so many of the components of our manufacturing and, eventually, our service sectors.
I mean, ***? Cheaper way doesn''t make them better.
Posted by ibsteve2u at 11:43 AM
Great post.
Many of the foreign professionals I''ve worked with are actually quite stupid.
They compensate by using other mechanisms that work for them.
#1 on their list is to not lose respect and not lose a paycheck.
So when was the last time you heard an Irish man ask for his retribution?
Posted by alexma50085 at 11:00 AM : Feb 21, 2008
I think the Irish people IMMIGRATED here. Were they treated horribly? If you say so, I believe you, they are your family. The slaves were NOT immigrants. They were brought here in chains and shackles. Where is the corralation?
People like her, Jackson and others need to keep Racism alive and well or a whole bunch of people will be out of work and an entire industry will colapse
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Posted by exCoachKen at 12:34 PM : Feb 21, 2008
+ report abuse
The Same way Kerry did, Dip S*H*I*T
Wait a minute, did they hang a noose or a nose on her office door?
And was the noose (or nose) a copy of another one?
If it was a copy, could she have made the copy herself?
So many questions . . .
.
Obviously, a relative of the word-thief O-BOMBA.
.
Posted by deemsnyd at 12:09 PM : Feb 21, 2008
The correlation is that it''s nearly 150 years since the slaves were freed. It''s time they get over what was done to them and get on with their lives, stop whining and grow up!
I wish we could put some kind of expiration date on just how long the black community can continue to use the race card. It''s been well over 150 years. Obviously thats not long enough, so, how about it? When will you folks hang that "CRUTCH" up for good?
How about 50 more years? That will make over 200 total. what do you say?
Posted by djrdub at 01:28 PM : Feb 21, 2008
Please stop with the excuses. Look at the illegitimate
birth rate in the black community. Alot of the black children don''t know who there fathers are, the mother has multiple kids from multiple fathers, the fathers don''t give a dam about the kids. The drop out rate of school is very high...black men have a very high chance of being murdered by another black man. I am sure Martin Luther king is probably rolling over in his grave and all the other people that died or got beat up in the Civil Rights Movement so the next few generations could destroy any chance of hope. Stop the I''m a victim mentality and start doing something positive...like looking at the facts and putting the blame where it belongs...the blacks are destroying themselves.
Posted by Mikethebarba
Thanks to the Professor above I know you are right.
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