In a strange twist of events, a professor at Columbia University who reported finding a noose outside her office door last fall has been reprimanded after an investigation concluded that she had committed numerous acts of plagiarism over several years.
The investigation, which was conducted by a law firm hired by the university, found that Madonna G. Constantine, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia’s Teachers College, was guilty of plagiarism in at least two dozen instances, borrowing passages from both colleagues and students without attribution. The findings of the investigation were first reported by the university’s student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, which obtained a copy of a memorandum from administrators at Teachers College to faculty members.
The memo does not specify what punishment Ms. Constantine will face as a result of the investigation. But a source close to the investigation said the professor’s salary had been reduced.
In a vehement, 475-word written statement, Ms. Constantine insisted that she was innocent and accused Teachers College of intimidation and blackmail. She also used the words “witch hunt” and “conspiracy” in reference to the investigation.
In October, Ms. Constantine, who is African-American, said she had found a noose dangling outside the door of her office at Columbia. In her statement on Wednesday, she implied that that incident was related to the allegations of plagiarism. “I believe that nothing that has happened to me this year is coincidental,” she wrote, “particularly when I reflect upon the hate crime I experienced last semester involving a noose on my office door.”
The New York Police Department’s hate-crime task force told the Spectator in January that it still had no suspects in the incident.
In her statement, Ms. Constantine also alluded to evidence “showing my accusers to have lied.”
Several Complaints
One of those accusers is Christine Yeh. In 2005, Ms. Yeh, then an associate professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, discovered that portions of papers that she had published appeared in verbatim or near-verbatim form in papers by Ms. Constantine. “I felt violated, betrayed, totally unsure what to do,” she said.
What she did was contact Suniya S. Luthar, who was chairwoman of the department of counseling and clinical psychology at the time. It was then that Ms. Yeh, who is now an associate professor of counseling psychology at the University of San Francisco, learned that hers was not the only complaint.
“Many, many more” people complained, said Ms. Luthar, who, in the wake of the October noose incident, was portrayed by some news-media outlets as Ms. Constantine’s rival in the department. That’s ridiculous, she said of such judgments on Wednesday.
According to Ms. Luthar, she was interested only in seeing that those who brought plagiarism allegations against Ms. Constantine received a fair hearing. And she remains upset that the controversy has been framed in racial terms.
“I’m from India. I am a woman of color,” Ms. Luthar said. “Most of the kids who came forward are ethnic minorities, and several were black. To cast this as an issue of race is misguided and wrongheaded, to say the least.”
Among the graduate students who came forward is Tracy Juliao. She said she discovered that several portions of her dissertation on the multiple roles of women had been copied by Ms. Constantine in a paper. Like Ms. Yeh, Ms. Juliao described it as a violation. “You never expect not to be able to trust your faculty members,” she said.
Because of the nature and extent of the copied passages, Ms. Juliao said she believed what Ms. Constantine did had to be intentional. “Given that there is more than one instance, there is no other explanation for this,” she said. “It’s not a random, Oh, I forgot to cite this.”
In the memo sent to faculty members, Ms. Yeh and Ms. Juliao were commended for coming forward with their allegations. According to sources familiar with the investigation, there were other students who declined to participate for fear of retribution.
The investigation into the plagiarism accusations was conducted by the law firm Hughes Hubbard and Reed, and began in 2006. Ms. Constantine had been aware of the investigation, according to a university spokeswoman. The spokeswoman, Marcia Horowitz, called allegations of a conspiracy against Ms. Constantine “absurd.”
Ms. Constantine did not respond to telephone and e-mail requests for an interview on Wednesday.