In October of last year, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Jerlando Jackson, the Dean of the College of Education at Michigan State, alleging that he had committed plagiarism in a number of academic papers over the course of many years.
From that report:
The complaint includes nearly 40 examples of plagiarism that span nine of Jackson’s papers, including his Ph.D. thesis, and range from single sentences to full pages. It adds to the allegations of research misconduct already facing the embattled dean, who was a coauthor on several papers implicated in complaints against diversity officials earlier this year, including Harvard University’s chief diversity officer, Sherri Ann Charleston.”Jackson has failed all ordinary standards of academic honesty,” said Peter Wood, the head of the National Association of Scholars and a former provost at Boston University, where he helped lead plagiarism investigations of faculty and alumni. “As long as he remains as a dean, the university has no legitimate basis to hold students and faculty to basic standards of intellectual integrity.”
Now, months later, the school claims it has cleared Jackson of any wrongdoing, and is wrapping the story in a defense of DEI policies.
From The State News:
MSU: Dean accused of plagiarism, targeted by DEI opponents, ‘exonerated’Michigan State University said it has exonerated the College of Education’s dean, Jerlando Jackson, after he was accused of plagiarism in October, and implicated in a conservative-media crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion scholarship.A letter sent to university leaders this month — and signed by President Kevin Guskiewicz and Provost Thomas Jeitschko — said a “preliminary assessment” was conducted by the university’s research integrity officer after it received a plagiarism complaint against Jackson.Following that assessment, “it was determined that there was not sufficient credible evidence to support further review of the Allegation,” said the letter, which was shared with The State News by an MSU spokesperson.”The (research integrity officer’s) thorough review encompassed relevant documents, records, and materials referred to in the Allegation and confirmed that Dean Jackson’s work meets our institution’s highest standards of academic integrity. In alignment with the university’s exoneration policy, we recognize the importance of restoring the reputation of individuals involved in unsubstantiated misconduct allegations. Michigan State University will continue to actively support Dean Jackson and his distinguished career in education.”Guskiewicz and Jeitschko’s letter also addressed backlash against Jackson, much of which occurred on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.”In addition to academic concerns, Dean Jackson has unfortunately been the target of racist, vile and despicable attacks,” the letter said. “We condemn these attacks on him and reinforce our support of him as a valued member of leadership at Michigan State University.”
Aaron Sibarium of the Free Beacon commented on Twitter/X, including graphics showing the examples of plagiarized text side-by side:
Sibarium also wrote this update at the Free Beacon:
The complaint against Jackson, which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, drew particular concern because of his role at MSU’s education school, the top-ranked teacher training program in the country. Steve McGuire, a fellow at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, said it made a “mockery of the whole enterprise of education to have someone who appears to be a serial plagiarist running a school of education.” Peter Wood, who led multiple research misconduct probes as a former provost at Boston University, said that Jackson had “failed all ordinary standards of academic honesty.””As long as he remains as a dean, the university has no legitimate basis to hold students and faculty to basic standards of intellectual integrity,” Wood told the Free Beacon at the time. The complaint spanned 68 pages, single-spaced, and described several cases in which Jackson appeared to have lifted entire pages without attribution, tweaking some sentences and details while maintaining the bulk of source material.
Featured image via YouTube.
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