According to a recently filed lawsuit, two DEI deans hired by MIT in 2021, following the summer of George Floyd and broader racial awareness across the country and particularly at educational institutions higher education, plagiarized significant parts of their theses.
A report released today by The Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium details the extent of alleged serial plagiarism committed by Tracie Jones-Barrett and Alana Anderson, two women hired along with a handful of other deans of diversity, equity and inclusion by the Boston institution. in June 2021.
On Saturday, a 71-page complaint reached the university, which highlights the plethora of pages, passages and ideas that each woman allegedly stole from university colleagues for their respective theses.
In the post-George Floyd social and academic climate, MIT has hired at least six DEI deans, one for each of the university’s major colleges.
Two DEI recruits at MIT in June 2021 were accused of plagiarizing a significant number of passages from their respective graduate theses.
Anderson, who currently works as the inclusion and belonging program manager for the Boston Beer Company, was previously assistant dean of DEI at MIT’s College of Computer Science. Prior to this position, she held a similar position at Boston University.
In 2017, she received her doctorate from Boston College after completing her dissertation titled “#BLACKONCAMPUS: A Critical Examination of the Racial and Gender Performance of Black College Women on Social Media.”
According to the complaint and the Free Beacon’s report, Anderson allegedly copied more than a full page of the work of Mark Chae — a counseling professor at Pillar College who did not get an official citation in his thesis — into his dissertation.
Chae told The Free Beacon that he might have liked to receive a citation in Anderson’s work, given his apparent comfort with using his own.
“Anderson seems quite comfortable taking credit for much of another writer’s scientific work,” he told the outlet via email.
Anderson further appears to have stolen words from Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Jarvis Givens, which the Beacon reports appears to violate MIT’s explicit ruling on plagiarism.
Sibarium further claims that even parts of Anderson’s acknowledgments section appear to have been plagiarized, with the original insertion of several typos on his part.
Anderson allegedly lifted uncredited passages from several other authors, all of whom are highlighted in the complaint submitted to MIT, Boston College and Northeastern University — where Jones-Barrett earned her doctorate in education.
Neither academic institution released a statement after being contacted for comment.
Alana Anderson, who holds a doctorate from Boston College, is accused of plagiarizing significant passages from several academics, including Mark Chae, a professor of counseling at Pillar College.
She is also accused of copying some of the work of Professor Jarvis Givens of the Harvard Graduate School of Education in her own dissertation.
Jones-Barrett earned her doctorate in higher education last spring after submitting her dissertation titled “Cite a sista: How Black Women at Ivy League Graduate Schools of Education Make Thriving Meaningful.” »
In this scholarly work, she ironically stole an entire section on “ethical considerations” from one of her classmates at Northeastern.
Emmitt Wyche III, who in 2020 submitted the dissertation: “Boyz in the Hoods: (Re) Defining the Narratives of Black Male Doctoral Degrees,” had paragraphs of his dissertation allegedly removed by Jones-Barrett, who used his words without any sort of citation in his bibliography.
More than 10 pages of noted and uncited content appeared in the DEI deans’ theses, along with a large handful of paragraphs and sentences scattered throughout their pages, according to the complaint.
The charges against Anderson and Jones-Barrett come about six months after now-deposed Harvard University President Claudine Gay was accused of plagiarizing part of her academic work.
Sibarium points out that after Gay’s ouster, Jones-Barrett and Anderson are the latest additions to a growing list of names of DEI officers at universities across the country who have been accused of plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty.
Almost no institutions in which the accused academics work and practice have announced disciplinary measures against the alleged cheaters.
But some schools, including MIT, appear to be abandoning their quasi-religious commitment to DEI principles.
Earlier this month, MIT announced that it would no longer request diversity statements from faculty applicants.
The elite math and science-focused institution also led the charge to reinstate mandatory submission of standardized test scores by applicants.
Tracie Jones-Barrett allegedly plagiarized her own Northeastern University classmate, Emmitt Wyche III, who in 2020 submitted the thesis: “Boyz in the Hoods: (Re) Defining the Narratives of Black Male Doctoral Degree”
Jones-Barrett earned her doctorate in higher education last spring after submitting her dissertation titled “Cite a sista: How Black Women at Ivy League Graduate Schools Make Thriving Meaningful.”
Scott Fitzsimmons, another Northeast graduate student, also appears to have been a victim of Jones-Barrett’s alleged academic dishonesty. A basic outline of the chapter would have been taken from his work and inserted directly into JB’s without citation.
While Anderson, who also runs her own “science-based” DEI consulting organization, no longer works for MIT, Jones-Barrett currently serves as the institute’s deputy community and equity manager. school.
Last week, MIT announced that “diversity statement requests will no longer be part of applications for faculty positions at MIT,” noting that the decision was made by President Sally Kornbluth, with the support of the deans academics, as well as the provost and chancellor.
“My goals are to harness the full breadth of human talent, to bring the best to MIT and to ensure that they thrive once here,” Kornbluth said.
“There are many ways we can create an inclusive environment, but forced statements infringe on free speech and don’t work. »
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