ASU professor Matthew C. Whitaker, who has been at the heart of several plagiarism scandals this summer, was placed on administrative leave and relieved of all his duties at the university, ASU spokesman Mark Johnson said in a statement.
“The University will follow Arizona Board of Regents policy as it reviews allegations that his conduct has fallen short of the University’s expectations for a faculty member and a scholar,” he said.
ASU’s media relations confirmed this action was in connection to the conflict Whitaker was recently involved in with the City of Phoenix.
Whitaker was hired by the city to teach a course to police officers about cultural awareness. It was revealed that a large majority of the materials developed for the course were directly copied from a course offered by the Chicago Police Department, which is given away for free, council aid Vanessa Salinas confirmed.
Related: Editorial: If plagiarist ASU professor Matthew Whitaker was a student, he would be expelled
Salinas said that Councilman DiCiccio and City Manager Ed Zuercher requested that Whitaker refund the $21,900 dollars he had billed the city for the hours he spent developing the course.
Salinas said Whitaker’s attorney released a statement saying that the money would not be refunded and that the police department was made expressly aware that 83 percent of the materials being presented were borrowed from the Chicago PD.
“We’ve spoken to the police department here. None of them were aware of that, and Whitaker has not provided any proof in email or text that show that he notified them,” Salinas said.
Since that incident, ASU received criticism for being too forgiving of Whitaker’s behavior and promoting an attitude of negligence toward plagiarism.
The conflict with the City of Phoenix and the plagiarized course material arose from earlier instances of plagiarism on Whitaker’s part, in which he was accused and confirmed to have plagiarised and under attributed many portions of his book “Peace Be Still: Modern Black America from World War II to Barack Obama.”
This resulted in his demotion at the university and a cancellation of the contract Whitaker had with the city to develop the police training course, which he had already started developing.
Related Links:
ASU professor demoted for plagiarism after investigation
Professor resigns committee position, questions plagiarism decision
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