Professor Who Found Noose Is Accused of Plagiarism
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A Teachers College professor who had found a noose hanging on her office door last October has been accused of plagiarizing the work of her students and a colleague, school officials announced yesterday.
In a two-year investigation commissioned by Teachers College, which is affiliated with Columbia University, outside investigators found that the professor, Madonna Constantine, used the work of others in her published papers about 12 times without attributing it.
The investigators, from the law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed, were called in after two Teachers College doctoral students, Karen Cort and Tracy Juliao, and a professor who now teaches at the University of San Francisco, Christine Yeh, complained separately that Ms. Constantine plagiarized their work.
The papers were published in various academic journals over a period of five years, a statement released by Teachers College said. The investigators found that Ms. Constantine’s “explanation for the strikingly similar language was not credible,” the statement said.
A group of former and current Teachers College professors examined the results of the investigation and approved them, and Ms. Constantine now faces sanctions.
The school would not specify what sort of punishment it would seek. Because she is tenured, she will not lose her job.
“Such misconduct is completely at odds with the ethos of our institution, our faculty and our students,” the statement said.
Ms. Constantine, a psychology professor who focuses on race relations, was the subject of press attention in October when a hangman’s noose was found dangling from the doorknob of her office at the school.
The incident, along with a string of swastikas found earlier in Brooklyn, set off a spike in hate crime complaints across the city. Police have not named any suspects in the noose incident at Ms. Constantine’s office and said the investigation is still active.
“The plagiarism doesn’t really have an impact on it,” a police official said of the case.
Ms. Constantine’s lawyer, Paul Giacomo, did not return messages requesting comment.
