A Timeline of the Recent DEI Plagiarism Allegations

For nearly the past year, there have been a string of academic plagiarism allegations targeting black university officials, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and other advocates for improving diversity.

The allegations, quite plainly, do not seek to improve academic integrity. Instead, they attempt to discredit DEI and other diversity programs in academia. As a result, the allegations have been treated with skepticism, especially the more recent ones.

This has been made worse because many of the allegations don’t hold up under scrutiny. They either represent extremely minor infractions or aren’t actual proof of plagiarism.

But that doesn’t mean that none of the allegations are valid. At least a couple have been. However, it’s still important to recognize the weaponization of plagiarism, even when the allegations are valid.

Since the allegations are ongoing (a new one was published just today), I’m creating a “living document” to collate them. This post will be updated as new ones are published, and any I previously missed will be added.

The goal is to create a hub for reading about these accusations, with basic info about the story and links to further information.

December 2023 – Claudine Gay – Harvard President

Truthfully, the story began in October 2023, when the allegations against Gay were first submitted to reporters. However, they were not published until December 2023, following a heavily criticized hearing before the House Committee on Education.

The original 25 allegations covered the scope of her academic career. However, only four were considered severe enough to warrant a response. In those cases, Gay and Harvard requested corrections rather than retractions.

A second group of allegations was filed in December after the story broke. However, those allegations were largely duplicative, and no additional action was taken. Despite that, Gay resigned as president in January 2023 and returned to her tenured professor position.

February 2024 – Sherri Ann Charleston – Harvard Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer

Less than a month after Gay’s resignation, similar allegations were filed against Harvard’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Sherri Ann Charleston.

The main allegations against her deal less with traditional plagiarism and more with duplicative publication. Her lone academic publication was shared with her husband, Lavar Charleston. However, the paper borrowed significant amounts from an earlier publication by Lavar Charleston, leading to allegations of “double dipping” and “ghost authorship.”

There were also allegations of plagiarism in her 2009 dissertation. In my analysis, I found that some of the passages warranted further investigation, though they were overall meritless. Unfortunately, it is unclear if that investigation took place. Sherri Ann Charleston is still in her position, which is administrative rather than academic.

February 2024 – Shirley R. Greene – Harvard Extension School Administrator

Days after Charleston’s allegations, Harvard Extension School Administrator Shirley Green faced similar allegations. Here, the allegations focused on her 2008 dissertation submitted to the University of Michigan.

Once again, the allegations were largely either extremely minor or not proof of plagiarism. However, some passages were problematic and, in my mind, warranted further investigation. It is unclear if that investigation took place at either school.

Additional allegations were published weeks later. However, Greene still holds her position at Harvard, which is administrative and not academic.

Note: Due to timing, I did not write a full article on this story, but I am cited heavily in the linked Harvard Crimson piece.

February 2024 – Alade McKen – Columbia University Irving Medical Center Chief DEI Officer

After the three Harvard cases, the allegations began to expand to other schools. The first in that respect was Alade McKen, the Chief DEI Officer at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

With McKen, the allegations focused on his 2021 dissertation, which was submitted to Iowa State. The allegations claimed that nearly 20% of the dissertation was plagiarized. Though some of the sources were mentioned in the bibliography, not all were, and none of the text was indicated to be quoted.

From a purely plagiarism standpoint, this was the strongest case when it was made public. There was clear evidence of significant verbatim and non-verbatim plagiarism encompassing a large percentage of the dissertation.

Though it is unclear what action, if any, was taken, McKen’s LinkedIn page says that he left the position in August 2024.

April 2024 – Natalie J. Perry – Head of Cultural North Star at UCLA

Two months later, similar allegations were made against Natalie J. Perry, the head of Cultural North Star, a DEI program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The allegations focused on her 2014 thesis, which was submitted to the University of Virginia.

These allegations, like McKen’s, pointed to severe plagiarism issues. Though I could not review the complete analysis, the highlighted portions alone pointed to serious problems that needed to be addressed.

It is unclear what investigation took place, if any. However, Perry is still in her position at UCLA as of now.

June 2024 – Jamaal Bowman – Member of the House of Representatives

Though not an academic, Congressman Jamaal Bowman faced similar allegations against his 2019 dissertation, which was submitted to Manhattanville College.

The allegations of plagiarism were exceptionally weak. Though they pointed to a few passages that were poorly paraphrased or copied, they were short and made up an insignificant portion of the dissertation. While still mistakes, they don’t paint a picture of deliberate or rampant plagiarism.

Most of the criticism centered around the dissertation’s content. Since I am not a subject matter expert, I have not commented on or will not comment on those issues.

Bowman is still serving as a Representative. However, he lost his primary election and is expected to leave office in early 2025.

August 2024 – Robin DiAngelo – Author of ‘White Fragility’

Robin DiAngelo is best known as the author of the 2018 book White Fragility. However, she is also an affiliate associate professor of education at the University of Washington.

Her allegations centered on her 2004 doctoral thesis, which was submitted to the University of Washington.

The allegations did point to some issues with the paper. However, those issues were largely minor, and the report attempted to turn relatively minor mistakes into a much larger problem.

The University of Washington agreed, dismissing the allegations against her shortly after they were formally filed.

September 2024 – Darryll Pines – University of Maryland President

The latest allegations focus on Darryll Pines, the President of the University of Maryland. According to the claims, Pines plagiarized a 2002 paper he and a coauthor published in Proceedings of SPIE – The International Society for Optical Engineering.

According to the allegations, 1,500 words from the 5,000-word paper were copied from a 1996 website on the same topic. Most changes involved grammar or spelling alterations, particularly from British to American English.

A university representative defended the practice, saying it was “not uncommon for historical and technical reviews to use recurrent language to provide a framework for past work.”

However, the website nor its author were cited in the paper. It is unclear whether Bowman or his coauthor were responsible for the passage.

Note: I will update this timeline when I publish my full article on this case.

Bottom Line

The goal of this post is to gather all this information in one place. I will continue updating it as new allegations are made or I discover stories I missed. With so many cases pending, it’s become impossible for anyone, even me, to keep track of them all.

That said, the allegations overall have been mixed. Some pointed to serious issues that deserve a strong response. Many, however, attempted to either exaggerate minor issues or claim that some similarities were proof of plagiarism when they weren’t.

When you look at those targeted, it is clear that these are politically motivated attacks. The goal isn’t to improve academic integrity but to disparage efforts to increase academic diversity. When someone files an allegation for these reasons, they will be treated skeptically.

As a consequence, plagiarism becomes devalued as an academic sin. All allegations, no matter how serious or how well-intended, become suspect. Schools and the public at large become burned out on plagiarism issues, and there’s less will to address the very real challenges facing academia.

So yes, there are real problems in academia. However, the problems with plagiarism aren’t limited to DEI or any other aspect of academia. It’s an institutional issue.

However, fixing that becomes impossible when plagiarism is weaponized against a single group within academia.