Victim of hate incident fired from Columbia University

i live in nyc, know students & faculty at Columbia and involved in this matter, she's guilty and it's rather plain to all. she however is manufacturing diversion from the issue, playing the race card, and doing everything in the world except reasonably explain away the charges. even The Daily Voice has taken the bait and bought into it her diversion. "Victim of Hate Incident Fired from Columbia" though technically true, blurs 20/20 vision, play into empathy and it should be noted The Daily Voice failed to be balanced. 2 Essential and Key facts of information of where and how The Daily Voice failed its readers (1) A law firm hired by Columbia University / Teachers College to investigate Constantine issued a report citing "numerous instances in which she [Constantine] used others' work without attribution in papers she published in academic journals over the past five years. (2) The Spectator (the Columbia student newspaper) also conducted its own analysis of the 36 passages that were involved in Teachers College’s determination that Professor Madonna Constantine was guilty of academic plagiarism, and the paper concluded that there were significant similarities between the passages by Constantine and passages by Professor Christine Yeh and two Teachers College students. Anyone can verify this at Wikipedia. The Daily Voice made the choice to speak to her defense, quote her lawyers, etc. However how and why did The Daily Voice omit the 2 facts I've presented? The Daily Voice and people that defend Black people just because they are Black are going to have to decide how biased they are committed to being... even in the face of the clear facts. Responsible journalism warranted and merited The Daily Voice to mention that Columbia hired a law firm to investigate this to make sure they were on unbiased solid footing, they are. However just as there are those that claim OJ is innocent (of course he is), there are those that will claim this woman is innocent, and why...of course she is.

Its so plain to see that she is guilty and so pathetic that, like a broken record, she always falls back on the tired old excuse of racism....yawn...

Oh how I hate plagiarism. One of the reasons why innovative thoughts are so slow to sip into academia is because there are people who are content with replicating old works in some cases word for word. Spineless academics and spineless journal editors who are stuck in familiar recipes.

I hate to say it, but she hardly appears to be a victim. Rather, she has looked for ways to deflect from her own bad behavior by blaming others. I am not surprised she found a noose on her door: I bet you a dollar she put it there.

She's hardly a victim; in fact it's likely she or someone close to her knowingly put that noose on the door. You know that, but it just pains you to admit it. Stop playing this victim game already.

Well, if she isn't "a victim", you people using The Daily Voice as your sounding board have surely made her one. You've placed her right up there with try her, hang, her and then let's find out the real results later.

Might be a victim? Its not like it hasnt happened before. But if she's lying. One thing comes to mind. The little boy that cried wolf!

It sounds like two different issues. Definitely they need to resolve the matter of the noose, but Columbia University seem like its well on its way to addressing the issue of suspected plagarism. It seems like plagarism is not as hard to prove as it used to be. Professor Constantine may be well out of luck.

Are we supposed to feel sorry for her, um them? I mean, she (they?) was the "victim" of her, well, their own racist prank. She or they is or are a complete racist, unqualified crank. We (us?) should be grateful she's (they're?) gone.

I, too, am glad that Columbia is taking plaigerism seriously. It is quite a tremendous problem in academia. Now, if she is guilty, shame on her, and after the hearing, she should be punished to the fullest extent. The quality of education in the United States, particularly at the secondary and primary levels, has gotten progressively worse, and now the only postitive aspect of our system, namely tertiary education, that is left is now being threatened. One of the reasons this has happened, I think, is due mostly to this sort of casual relationship that professors and students have. I've heard from friends who have studied in Africa, Europe and the U.K., and they are consistently startled (some pleasantly) at how casually students interact with professors, thus blurring that "professional line" which definately leads to situations like these. This is something worth revisiting.

E. Alan comments, "It seems like plagarism is not as hard to prove as it used to be."

Plagiarism is very easy to prove and virtually impossible to disprove; evidence is found in written words for all to view.

Constantine is rightfully fired and she should be stripped of all teaching credentials. This ignorant woman should not be allowed an academic position, ever again.

Baffles me why people cannot generate their own words. How difficult can this be to create original thoughts of your own?

Constantine hanged herself with her own ignorance.

Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation

We need to stop "wondering aloud" if something was racially motivated at these colleges and come to a consensus that where standards are faulty, not taken seriously, or simply do not exist formally then racism, sexism, homophobia, elitism etc (or simply the fear of these accusations) if present, is free to exploit and overly influence outcome.

Imo, a lack of standarized methods is equivalent to opening the door to allow an "ism" to run it course.

I also think these situations should be investigated by a 3rd party agency and not left up to students or faculty due to confilct of interests. Some students will want the professor out no matter what the facts are and will go along with any story. Same with members of faculty who may be overloaded with work, fear losing jobs, creating waves or simply fail to act "appropriately" (human error)

Clearly in this case, the noose incident demonstrates the presence of some form of racial tension but I'm willing to bet sexism also played a role. If it can help it, racism never travels alone and usually possesses "magical properties". It will bind with and appear to take on multiple identites sucking in any nearby "ism", become so magnified that those who are caught in the eye of its storm can't scale back to gain enough perspective to acknowledge its presence. (denial)

But just because the sun seems to disappear at night doesn't mean it no longer exists. It's still there.

More clear cut cases of faculty/administrative plagarism w/o racism as a factor have gone unpunished. Back in 2007, Glenn Poshard president of Southern Illinois University was found to have alledgedly plagarized his own dissertation!!

And what was the outcome of his situation?

The seven-person committee of senior faculty, whose report on Poshard was unveiled, recommended that the university take no action against the president. It calls for the dissertation to be withdrawn from the university library and be replaced with a corrected copy prepared by Poshard, and for the president to write a statement that expands on why his errors occurred and speaks more broadly about the “culture of integrity” at the university.

Despite the postive outcome for Poshard, he still acknowledges the "Witch Hunt" style of justice he'd experienced during the investigation.

Poshard said he hoped the university would adopt a standard practice - possibly appointing a standing committee - to address any future allegations of plagiarism against faculty or administration.

It's absurd that in 2008 many colleges and universities especially community colleges don't have or are just getting around to having standardized methods to handles these situations and when racism or any other "ism" rears it's head on campus, no amount of academic creditialism can bring about a just outcome. All of a sudden everybody gets really dumb....yet another example of racism's magical properties at work.

We need to stop "wondering aloud" if something was racially motivated at these colleges and come to a consensus that where standards are faulty, not taken seriously, or simply do not exist formally then racism, sexism, homophobia, elitism etc (or simply the fear of these accusations) if present, is free to exploit and overly influence outcome.

Imo, a lack of standarized methods is equivalent to opening the door to allow an "ism" to run it course.

I also think these situations should be investigated by a 3rd party agency and not left up to students or faculty due to confilct of interests. Some students will want the professor out no matter what the facts are and will go along with any story. Same with members of faculty who may be overloaded with work, fear losing jobs, creating waves or simply fail to act "appropriately" (human error)

Clearly in this case, the noose incident demonstrates the presence of some form of racial tension but I'm willing to bet sexism also played a role. If it can help it, racism never travels alone and usually possesses "magical properties". It will bind with and appear to take on multiple identites sucking in any nearby "ism", become so magnified that those who are caught in the eye of its storm can't scale back to gain enough perspective to acknowledge its presence. (denial)

But just because the sun seems to disappear at night doesn't mean it no longer exists. It's still there.

More clear cut cases of faculty/administrative plagarism w/o racism as a factor have gone unpunished. Back in 2007, Glenn Poshard president of Southern Illinois University was found to have alledgedly plagarized his own dissertation!!

And what was the outcome of his situation?

The seven-person committee of senior faculty, whose report on Poshard was unveiled, recommended that the university take no action against the president. It calls for the dissertation to be withdrawn from the university library and be replaced with a corrected copy prepared by Poshard, and for the president to write a statement that expands on why his errors occurred and speaks more broadly about the “culture of integrity” at the university.

Despite the postive outcome for Poshard, he still acknowledges the "Witch Hunt" style of justice he'd experienced during the investigation.

Poshard said he hoped the university would adopt a standard practice - possibly appointing a standing committee - to address any future allegations of plagiarism against faculty or administration.

It's absurd that in 2008 many colleges and universities especially community colleges don't have or are just getting around to having standardized methods to handles these situations and when racism or any other "ism" rears it's head on campus, no amount of academic creditialism can bring about a just outcome. All of a sudden everybody gets really dumb....yet another example of racism's magical properties at work.

assistant to the managing editor

My congratulation with gold's second place on Olympic Games. Basketball team was the best!