The notion that a neurodivergent person cannot distinguish between right and wrong is as preposterous as it is insulting. I have had autistic students, and they had no difficulty internalizing the fact that plagiarism is theft. Arday's neurodivergence, real or not, has zero bearing on the fact that he has committed intellectual theft and has to face he consequences. And Prof. Baron-Cohen's "defense" that Arday might commit suicide if pressured too hard is simply pathetic. If he is too emotionally fragile to face academic life, then academic life is not for him.
Another great piece, Sam -- but please be a little more cautious in a sentence like your last one, where you write that higher ed has "entirely" lost its self-awareness and humility. Here in the States, at least, there are plenty of small colleges--like the tiny, 700-student university where I teach--where academics still take their responsibilities seriously without making everything an ideological battleground. But we too get swept up in the outrage against higher ed. Cambridge and Harvard are not going out of business. But institutions like mine do, paying the price for the sins of others.
Thank you, Ray. Here too I would not want to say "entirely." We surely aren't immune to the ideological forces in the academy. But I do think there is a difference between elite and non-elite institutions. At the latter, we spend the bulk of our time time teaching, working with students and trying to help them learn something, often in the face of increasingly challenging headwinds. And we have little time for the research that would win us accolades in the profession. Some of us are more to the right, others more to the left, but I know plenty of colleagues who are just working hard, for long hours and at quite modest pay, so that a student might understand why it is worth the effort to read Aristotle or do organic chemistry lab.
It is so heartening to read this. There are times when I think that, even if the will was there to rebuild academia, there's nobody left to restore real scholarship. Not so! You're there, as you say, working quietly for little pay, out of the spotlight. May the force be with you sir.
Good post on a critical topic; thank you. But "Arday is right of course that one academic with a shaky relationship to the truth is not, by itself, a huge deal."? I don't agree with that; I think even one academic in that state (especially one who is obviously a serial liar and fabulist, like Arday is) IS a big deal, and a real problem for any institution (Cambridge in particular in this case, but also higher education in general) that cares -- or should care -- about its integrity.
Overall I think it's a positive for Arday to keep his job and for Cambridge to continue impotently defending his obvious misconduct. Arday is the outstanding example of who Cambridge is and of the kind of citizen the institution wants to cultivate. The institution richly deserves for every drop of its reputation to be defined by Jason Arday, and should immediately elevate him to its presidency.
Really no good defense here. Very bad behavior by the institution and its faculty.
Regarding widespread plagiarism and the specific focus on some individuals or groups: Something I tell my students when I teach my class on plagiarism (which is, I will add, a class that NO ONE taught at any time during my graduate education) is that a lot of the high profile and even lower profile cases that you see may have been fueled by some kind of personal or tribal animus, but we hear about them because they DO reveal/expose actual plagiarism. Pre-2023, I was specifically referring to the Monica Crowley case and to a much less known case of one of my former college professors who near the end of her life was accused of plagiarism in her dissertation from, like, 1964 or something, by some ex husband's ex wife's current husband or whatever. Very messy, very personal, but yes, a few instances of actual plagiarism. So, I tell them, either don't have enemies, or don't plagiarize, and the latter is easier.
I was very bothered during the Claudine Gay affair by the "everyone does it" defense. I don't believe that this is actually true. No, everyone does not do this. But I have come to accept that it is more widespread, even amongst scholars, where it counts the most I might add, than I had wanted to admit. In my experience as an educator, a lot of it is misunderstanding that never gets corrected and then leads to sloppy scholarship, rather than intent to deceive. But it is incumbent upon those of us in academia to educate better, with a knowledge that many academically successful students enter graduate school with a very poor understanding of originality, rigor, and scholarly integrity. It is our job to draw this out and promote better understanding through instruction AND serious enforcement of standards.
My politics are probably more aligned with Gay's, in very broad strokes, than with Crowley's, so I am not defending Crowley (who actually plagiarized quite a bit in her dissertation and I am embarrassed that my PhD and hers are from the same institution) here, but I can tell you that academics and lefties responded very differently to the Crowley allegations than they did to the Gay allegations. Zero tolerance, extreme schadenfreude, and not one single "everyone does it" nor "they are just going after her because she is a blonde MAGA". The difference was stark.
“So—as you can see—it’s an uncomfortable story landing right on the faultlines of the culture wars.”
No. It should not be uncomfortable to abandon a charlatan fabulist. The real tragedy is the defense. If I were Arday I would write a tell-all memoir “How I played the gullible left and made them all look like idiots”.
Why not cut this guy loose the instant it became obvious? it is baffling!!
Sam, A fine and earnest column, as usual. The problem is that your title ("Surely Liberals Can Agree That Plagiarism Is Bad") reflects noble aspiration--not contemporary reality. The fact that liberals cannot agree on previously uncontroversial norms (e.g., plagiarism, Hamas, Nazi tattoos, and murdering insurance executives are unalloyed bads) illustrates why the political left is sputtering so badly and driving away so many natural allies. Those outside the bubble (including you), can see the obvious. Those inside the bubble cannot and will not.
The notion that a neurodivergent person cannot distinguish between right and wrong is as preposterous as it is insulting. I have had autistic students, and they had no difficulty internalizing the fact that plagiarism is theft. Arday's neurodivergence, real or not, has zero bearing on the fact that he has committed intellectual theft and has to face he consequences. And Prof. Baron-Cohen's "defense" that Arday might commit suicide if pressured too hard is simply pathetic. If he is too emotionally fragile to face academic life, then academic life is not for him.
Anyone bother to try to verify whether this grifter is autistic at all?
I don’t think so; at least, I haven’t seen any evidence.
Another great piece, Sam -- but please be a little more cautious in a sentence like your last one, where you write that higher ed has "entirely" lost its self-awareness and humility. Here in the States, at least, there are plenty of small colleges--like the tiny, 700-student university where I teach--where academics still take their responsibilities seriously without making everything an ideological battleground. But we too get swept up in the outrage against higher ed. Cambridge and Harvard are not going out of business. But institutions like mine do, paying the price for the sins of others.
I've heard similar claims -- that the madness is mostly confined to the ivies and that smaller colleges remain entirely sane.
Thank you, Ray. Here too I would not want to say "entirely." We surely aren't immune to the ideological forces in the academy. But I do think there is a difference between elite and non-elite institutions. At the latter, we spend the bulk of our time time teaching, working with students and trying to help them learn something, often in the face of increasingly challenging headwinds. And we have little time for the research that would win us accolades in the profession. Some of us are more to the right, others more to the left, but I know plenty of colleagues who are just working hard, for long hours and at quite modest pay, so that a student might understand why it is worth the effort to read Aristotle or do organic chemistry lab.
It is so heartening to read this. There are times when I think that, even if the will was there to rebuild academia, there's nobody left to restore real scholarship. Not so! You're there, as you say, working quietly for little pay, out of the spotlight. May the force be with you sir.
Good post on a critical topic; thank you. But "Arday is right of course that one academic with a shaky relationship to the truth is not, by itself, a huge deal."? I don't agree with that; I think even one academic in that state (especially one who is obviously a serial liar and fabulist, like Arday is) IS a big deal, and a real problem for any institution (Cambridge in particular in this case, but also higher education in general) that cares -- or should care -- about its integrity.
Overall I think it's a positive for Arday to keep his job and for Cambridge to continue impotently defending his obvious misconduct. Arday is the outstanding example of who Cambridge is and of the kind of citizen the institution wants to cultivate. The institution richly deserves for every drop of its reputation to be defined by Jason Arday, and should immediately elevate him to its presidency.
I'm all for screening theses and dissertations for plagiarism so long as every such work gets the same scrutiny.
Really no good defense here. Very bad behavior by the institution and its faculty.
Regarding widespread plagiarism and the specific focus on some individuals or groups: Something I tell my students when I teach my class on plagiarism (which is, I will add, a class that NO ONE taught at any time during my graduate education) is that a lot of the high profile and even lower profile cases that you see may have been fueled by some kind of personal or tribal animus, but we hear about them because they DO reveal/expose actual plagiarism. Pre-2023, I was specifically referring to the Monica Crowley case and to a much less known case of one of my former college professors who near the end of her life was accused of plagiarism in her dissertation from, like, 1964 or something, by some ex husband's ex wife's current husband or whatever. Very messy, very personal, but yes, a few instances of actual plagiarism. So, I tell them, either don't have enemies, or don't plagiarize, and the latter is easier.
I was very bothered during the Claudine Gay affair by the "everyone does it" defense. I don't believe that this is actually true. No, everyone does not do this. But I have come to accept that it is more widespread, even amongst scholars, where it counts the most I might add, than I had wanted to admit. In my experience as an educator, a lot of it is misunderstanding that never gets corrected and then leads to sloppy scholarship, rather than intent to deceive. But it is incumbent upon those of us in academia to educate better, with a knowledge that many academically successful students enter graduate school with a very poor understanding of originality, rigor, and scholarly integrity. It is our job to draw this out and promote better understanding through instruction AND serious enforcement of standards.
My politics are probably more aligned with Gay's, in very broad strokes, than with Crowley's, so I am not defending Crowley (who actually plagiarized quite a bit in her dissertation and I am embarrassed that my PhD and hers are from the same institution) here, but I can tell you that academics and lefties responded very differently to the Crowley allegations than they did to the Gay allegations. Zero tolerance, extreme schadenfreude, and not one single "everyone does it" nor "they are just going after her because she is a blonde MAGA". The difference was stark.
thats quite an interesting conundrum on this piece and amazing thank you so much and I will be restacking it.
“So—as you can see—it’s an uncomfortable story landing right on the faultlines of the culture wars.”
No. It should not be uncomfortable to abandon a charlatan fabulist. The real tragedy is the defense. If I were Arday I would write a tell-all memoir “How I played the gullible left and made them all look like idiots”.
Why not cut this guy loose the instant it became obvious? it is baffling!!
Sam, A fine and earnest column, as usual. The problem is that your title ("Surely Liberals Can Agree That Plagiarism Is Bad") reflects noble aspiration--not contemporary reality. The fact that liberals cannot agree on previously uncontroversial norms (e.g., plagiarism, Hamas, Nazi tattoos, and murdering insurance executives are unalloyed bads) illustrates why the political left is sputtering so badly and driving away so many natural allies. Those outside the bubble (including you), can see the obvious. Those inside the bubble cannot and will not.
Maybe Arday and Ibram X. Kendi can start a new university together.
I’m sure it will be a mad success.