Columbia Fires 'Noose' Professor

You may recall the very suspect noose hanging incident at Columbia University last fall revolving around Professor Madonna Constantine. From the very beginning the incident smelled incredibly fishy and the university stonewalled any real investigation from the outset, although that didn't stop the PC mob from issuing demands before any real investigation could commence.

Though lo and behold, once the incident and other matters pertaining to Constantine were examined more thoroughly it became evident that Constantine herself was under suspicion, and one of the main reasons is she was enveloped in a very real plagiarism scandal.

Well, in what I must admit comes as a shocker, Constantine has been fired by Columbia, pending an appeal, naturally.

Columbia University’s Teachers College announced today that it planned to fire Madonna G. Constantine, a tenured professor, for plagiarism. The announcement, which came in a memorandum delivered to faculty members, said Ms. Constantine would be suspended immediately and would be dismissed, subject to a review by a faculty committee.

A law firm hired by the university to conduct an investigation reported in February that Ms. Constantine, a professor of psychology and education, had committed more than two dozen instances of plagiarism. Ms. Constantine has vehemently denied the accusations and has, in turn, accused others of plagiarizing her work. She has also accused colleagues of envy and racism.

Constantine obviously is quick to accuse others of misdeeds (when in trouble, project quickly) in order to deflect attention.

It bears noting her dismissal comes after an 18-month probe into the plagiarism charge, meaning they were ten months into the investigation when the noose incident conveniently occurred.

The letter, obtained by The New York Sun from a source at Teachers College, said the faculty advisory committee upheld an 18-month investigation by a Manhattan law firm, Hughes Hubbard & Reed, which found that Ms. Constantine had plagiarized two dozen times works of two former doctoral students and a former colleague.

"During the months since the College levied sanctions against her," the letter said, "Professor Constantine continued to make accusations of plagiarism, including in at least one instance to the press, against those whose works she had plagiarized."

When news of the plagiarism investigation became known in February, Ms. Constantine strenuously denied the charges. In addition to saying that it was she who the victim of plagiarism, Ms. Constantine said the school targeted her because of the "structural racism that pervades this institution."

How tiresome and pathetic.

Now let's just hope the appeal process doesn't drag on for years and this hack is promptly terminated.

It would also be nice if the NYPD could ever tell us who hung the noose. My hunch has always been it was Constantine herself or someone close to her.

In March, the New York Post disclosed that a grand jury had subpoenaed Ms. Constantine's university records, as part of its investigation into the alleged hate crime last October, when Ms. Constantine reported to police that a noose had been hung on her office door. The records included Ms. Constantine's financial contracts with the college and the details of the plagiarism investigation, an apparent widening of the probe to determine if someone close to Ms. Constantine may have put the noose on her door in an attempt to create sympathy for her, and to deflect attention from the plagiarism investigation.

The NYPD declined to comment on when the results of the grand jury investigation would be made known.

Naturally, you can expect a lawsuit from Constantine.

“I believe that nothing that has happened to me this year is coincidental, particularly when I reflect upon the hate crime I experienced last semester involving a noose on my office door,” she said in February in an e-mail message to faculty and students. “As one of only two tenured black women full professors at Teachers College, it pains me to conclude that I have been specifically and systematically targeted.”

Thanks to Hot Air, Instapundit and Protein Wisdom for the links.