2024-02-29 08:00:14
A new complaint accuses Alade McKen, Columbia University Medical School’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) chief, of plagiarizing his dissertation, including material from Wikipedia.
The complaint submitted to Iowa State and Columbia came without a name. The source brought up 60 possible plagiarized parts of the dissertation.
You know, it is not hard to attribute material, even when you paraphrase.
The alleged plagiarism covers 1/5 of the 163-page dissertation “‘UBUNTU’ I am because we are: A case study examining the experiences of an African-centered Rites of Passage program within a community-based organization.”
McKen submitted the dissertation to Iowa State University’s School of Education in 2021.
Two pages come from Wikipedia.
NEW: The chief diversity officer of Columbia University’s medical school, Alade McKen, plagiarized extensively in his doctoral dissertation, lifting huge chunks of material without attribution.
Two pages in the dissertation come directly from Wikipedia.🧵https://t.co/V1cy1vOwe4 pic.twitter.com/UBpTyOWXXT
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
Other pages lift paragraphs from well-known African scholars, including the University of Rwanda’s Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu, while making small tweaks to their prose, such as reordering certain clauses or changing a “were” to a “was.” pic.twitter.com/17VZpS8ozS
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
Some of the scholars McKen allegedly plagiarized appear in the dissertation’s bibliography but not in in-text citations. Others, like Ezeanya-Esiobu, an expert on “indigenous knowledge” who has worked with numerous international agencies, aren’t cited at all. pic.twitter.com/qvbdoRJI3i
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
McKen lifts pages worth of material from Ezeanya-Esiobu’s 2019 chapter “A Faulty Foundation: Historical Origins of Formal Education Curriculum in Africa,” published in the Frontiers in African Business Research book series.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
McKen lifts over five paragraphs from Archer-Cunningham’s 2007 journal article “Cultural Arts Education as Community Development: An Innovative Model of Healing and Transformation,” in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. pic.twitter.com/VmolDS6YAZ
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
As with Ezeanya-Esiobu, McKen makes scant changes to the plagiarized text. One passage simply switches the order of two items in a bulleted list while keeping their contents identical, and without citing Archer-Cunningham’s paper in parentheses. pic.twitter.com/Ps6Lo4bT5O
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
McKen also lifts a jargon-filled passage from LaGarrett King, a scholar of black education at the University of Buffalo who urges the “dismantling” of “white epistemic logic.” King is not cited anywhere in the dissertation. pic.twitter.com/mfonVy2E8T
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
Another paragraph cribs from a 2002 paper by Michael Adeyemi and Augustus Adeyinka, “Some Key Issues In African Traditional Education,” published in the McGill Journal of Education. pic.twitter.com/EYqpUs9CFk
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 29, 2024
Ezeanya-Esiobu told The Washington Free Beacon that someone could classify the passages pointed out as plagiarism.
McKen attended Binghamton University, Baruch College, and Iowa State University. He received his DEI certificate from Cornell in 2021. He also got a social justice certificate from Iowa State in 2017.
It’s getting to the point that plagiarism, a serious offense, won’t matter anymore because everyone has plagiarized.
It will be a big deal when someone doesn’t plagiarize.
Professor Jacobson has written many posts about DEI and Critical Race Theory infecting medical schools nationwide.
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