College of Maryland president accused of plagiarism

The College of Maryland at School Park will evaluation the scholarship of President Darryll Pines—at his request—following allegations that he plagiarized parts of two papers.

Pines is alleged to have lifted 1,500 phrases from a tutorial web site for a 5,000-word paper he co-authored in 2002, later reusing the identical part in a 2006 paper, in accordance with The Each day Wire, a conservative on-line publication that first made the allegations. Pines stated that whereas the claims lack advantage, an impartial investigation is “in the perfect curiosity of the college.”

Pines, who has been president of Maryland’s flagship at School Park since 2020, is an aerospace engineer who beforehand led the college’s College of Engineering and has printed dozens of articles.

The rising controversy bears similarities to the scandal final 12 months that in the end toppled Harvard College president Claudine Homosexual, who made corrections to her scholarly work and ultimately resigned following plagiarism allegations first reported by a conservative media outlet.

The Accusations

The Each day Wire listed greater than a dozen examples of comparable textual content in a side-by-side comparability of the tutorial web site and the 2002 paper written by Pines and co-author Liming Salvino, who’s now an govt in residence at Duke College. The Each day Wire—which was based by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and notes on its web site that it “doesn’t declare to be with out bias”—alleged that Pines copied quite a few passages from a 1996 tutorial written by Joshua Altmann, then a scholar in Australia, with out referencing or citing his work.

Pines pushed again on the allegations Wednesday night time.

“Whereas I don’t imagine there’s advantage to those claims, an neutral evaluation is in the perfect curiosity of the college,” he wrote in an electronic mail to college members, which the college shared. “In keeping with current insurance policies associated to analysis conduct, I’ve requested the Workplace of Analysis Integrity (ORI) to start an impartial evaluation.”

He stated the findings can be shared with College System of Maryland chancellor Jay Perman.

Pines added that he “is steadfast that our outcomes, information and findings are sound” however acknowledged “recurrent language within the introductory sections.” When the plagiarism allegations arose, he stated, he “instantly linked” together with his co-author “to evaluation the manuscript.”

He additionally referenced rampant scrutiny aimed toward greater training leaders.

“Previously 12 months, like a lot of my fellow greater training presidents and chancellors, I’ve come underneath aggressive scrutiny, each personally and professionally, together with aspersions forged on my decision-making and my values,” Pines famous within the message.

The Workplace of Analysis Integrity will full the evaluation inside 60 days, in accordance with college insurance policies.

Plagiarism Evaluate

Lisa Rasmussen, a philosophy professor on the College of North Carolina at Charlotte and editor in chief of the journal Accountability in Analysis, famous that the allegations in opposition to Pines are difficult by the truth that he wrote the piece with a co-author. She stated by electronic mail that the literature is stuffed with circumstances “the place one particular person plagiarized however the different knew nothing about it.”

Others argued that the variety of authors makes little distinction.

“It shouldn’t matter,” stated Sam Bruton, a philosophy professor on the College of Southern Mississippi and former director of the establishment’s Workplace of Analysis Integrity. “The truth that this particular person was one of many authors on a paper by which there are credible allegations of misconduct which were made, then the College of Maryland is underneath an obligation to comply with up and resolve whether or not or not there needs to be an inquiry.”

Whereas the results for Pines “could also be lessened considerably” if his co-author is discovered to have plagiarized, Bruton stated, “It’s not totally excusable” for Pines to have didn’t catch the problem. He additionally prompt that if The Each day Wire’s reporting is correct, “there isn’t any doubt that is plagiarism.”

Rasmussen struck an identical stance.

“If it’s as reported, it’s uncontroversial to acknowledge that that pattern constitutes plagiarism,” she stated.

Each Rasmussen and Bruton imagine the allegations in opposition to Pines, who’s Black, proceed a sample of assaults on students of coloration by conservative activists and publications in current months. Black students particularly have been focused by nameless plagiarism complaints.

“It’s additionally uncontroversial to notice that focusing on explicit teams of teachers for plagiarism allegations is a acknowledged aim of some political partisans,” Rasmussen stated. “Even in circumstances the place plagiarism allegations are true, that focusing on appears not less than as problematic because the plagiarism.”

Luke Rosiak, the Each day Wire reporter who wrote concerning the allegations, has coated 4 circumstances of alleged plagiarism this 12 months. All 4 topics accused of plagiarism are Black: Lisa Prepare dinner, a longtime educational and member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; Natalie Perry, a program lead on the College of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen College of Medication; Democratic U.S. consultant Jamaal Bowman of New York; and Pines.

In three of these circumstances, Rosiak partnered with anti–range, fairness and inclusion activist Chris Rufo, who first printed the allegations in opposition to Homosexual. Whereas Rosiak was not concerned with that case, he and Rufo have written about plagiarism allegations in opposition to Prepare dinner, Bowman and Pines.

Neither Rosiak nor Rufo responded to a request for remark from Inside Larger Ed. However Brent Scher, managing editor of The Each day Wire, wrote by electronic mail, “Our unique reporting on Pines speaks for itself, and we stand by it.”