Madonna G. Constantine is not quite an unfamiliar name in the New York press. She's a tenured professor of education at the esteemed Columbia Teachers College on the upper west side's Morningside Heights. Dr. Constantine found a noose hanging on the door of her office a few months ago. A hate crime. And soon enough copycats hanged nooses here and there around the US.
Columbia found no one to fit this crime although university authorities had tapes of the incident.
Now professor Costantine has been accused of being a plagarist. There is proof enough in her papers that she lifted textually from her students papers, claiming for her own, their words. Now, Constantine is black and so the school authorities have given her a slap on the wrist lest the famous Ivy League school be accused of giving the appearance of racial bias. So under the guise of tenure the good professor will keep her post, but will students want to have her as a teacher let alone as an advisor on their MA or Ph.D. theses?
Dr. Constantine cannot have it both ways. She's committed a high crime in the ethics of the academy, but she has not walked away unstained.
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