The man in charge of Columbia University Medical School’s diversity, equity, and inclusion department has been accused of plagiarizing a good portion of his doctoral dissertation.
Serious allegations of plagiarism have been lodged against Alade McKen over his 2021 dissertation at the Iowa State University School of Education titled, “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.”
The revelation came as a result of a 55-page complaint sent to Columbia this week, ironically furnished with extensive citations, where the only attribution apparently missing was the author of the document. The complaint was submitted anonymously and first reported on by The Washington Free Beacon.
The Beacon estimated that approximately one-fifth of the 163-page dissertation appeared to have been plagiarized. In some sections, more than half the text was copied verbatim from either Wikipedia or a source uncited within the text.
A small sample comparing the purported text of the dissertation to the apparent source proves telling. Many passages resemble the following one, where the vast majority of the text was allegedly taken verbatim from an uncredited source, in this case, Wikipedia (verbatim text in italics):
“Although many believe that Black nationalism is the initial driving force behind African-centered learning, there is a culmination of a social, cultural, and artistic movement that contributed to the Black educational experience in the United States. During the early 20th century, the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural and political movement in New York City, many writers and historians gathered in major cities. They began to work on documenting Africans’ achievements throughout history. They also began to set up institutions to support scholarly work in African American history and literature, such as the American Negro Academy (now the Black Academy of Letters and Arts), founded in Washington, DC, in 1874.
“Leaders included Arthur Schomburg, who devoted his life to collecting literature, art, slave narratives, and other African diaspora artifacts. In 1911, along with John Edward Bruce, he founded the Negro Society for Historical Research in Yonkers, New York. The value of Schomburg’s collection was recognized as It became the basis of what is now called the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, based in Harlem, New York. Schomburg published an essay, “The Negro Digs Up His Past,” in an issue of the 1925 Survey Graphic devoted to Harlem’s intellectual life. This form of literature and many other articles had widespread distribution and influence, as he detailed the achievements of people of African descent.”
Other passages, apparently copied to the same extent, come from the works of 27 other authors, including Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu of the University of Rwanda, as Zero Hedge reported.
The New York Times reached out to McKen for comment, but he declined to provide one. However, Angie Hunt, a spokesperson for Iowa State, told NYT that the university had also received the complaint and was “in the process of reviewing” it. Hunt added, “The university is committed to the highest ethical standards to ensure the integrity and public trust in research conducted at Iowa State.”
The McKen accusation is just the latest plagiarism scandal to rock elite academia. In January, the president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, was forced to resign amid accusations that she had committed plagiarism on dozens of occasions in her published articles as well as her doctoral dissertation, as previously covered by The Dallas Express.
Gay is not the only Harvard official to be accused of plagiarism. The venerated Ivy League institution’s own DEI officer, Sherri Ann Charleston, stands accused of passing off other people’s work as her own, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The same goes for the school’s Title IX coordinator in the Office of Gender Equity, Shirley Greene, who was accused of plagiarizing in her dissertation, Zero Hedge also reported.
