Feb 21, 2008 2:40 pm US/Eastern
Columbia Prof. Accused Of Plagiarism Keeps Job
NEW YORK (AP) ―
A Columbia University professor whose colleagues found a noose hanging from her office doorway will remain on staff despite being sanctioned for plagiarism, school officials said Thursday.
The university's Teachers College announced Wednesday it had imposed "serious sanctions" against Madonna G. 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.
The details of the sanctions were not released, but Teachers College spokeswoman Marcia Horowitz said Constantine will remain a tenured professor and was not suspended.
She said the case was reviewed by an outside law firm as well as a panel of current and former professors at Teachers College.
Constantine said Wednesday that the accusations as well as the noose incident are part of efforts to intimidate her because she is black.
Her 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.
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.
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 been targeted because of her race and hinted the sanctions and noose incident were linked, claims that Horowitz denied.
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. As of Thursday, the investigation was ongoing and there had been no arrests made in either incident, police said.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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