Correction: A previous version of this article omitted that the committee reviewing the case involving Matthew Whitaker concluded that plagiarism had not occurred.
History professor Monica Green, Ph.D., resigned as chair of the History Promotions and Tenure Committee on April 11 in protest of the University’s conclusion that Matthew Whitaker, Ph.D., had not committed plagiarism.
Whitaker, the director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and ASU Foundation history professor, received the status of full-tenured professor in June 2011.
A motion in 2010 to expedite Whitaker’s promotion resulted in a review of his personnel file.
This routine review is part of the process the committee uses to determine promotions, Green said.
Green said during this process the file will be sent to outside reviewers to make an assessment and decide whether to recommend a candidate for promotion.
History professor Mark von Hagen, Ph.D., served as director of the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at the time of Whitaker’s review.
During the review, some senior members of the history faculty began researching and compiling reports of his work, and found what they considered to be evidence of plagiarism, von Hagen said.
“They compiled at least 20 pages of report researching his work," von Hagen said.
A committee was appointed to the investigation by the Research Integrity Officer with the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development, Vice President for Academic Personel Mike Searle said in an email. The committee in the Whitaker case included historians who are not part of the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies.
"That was, of course, done to ensure a fair and independent review of the allegations that had been made against Dr. Whitaker," Searle said.
The committee later concluded that the Whitaker had not committed plagiarism, Searle said.
"Dr. Green is entitled to disagree with the findings of the committee charged to do the investigation," he said. "Nonetheless, that is the process as determined by university policy and procedures and the matter is now closed."
Green said the case against Whitaker is complicated because the personnel file containing his promotion packet cannot be revealed.
“The issue is (that) the formal conclusion of the process of review was terminated by the administration when they promoted him,” Green said.
While Green did not say whether she believed the plagiarism allegations were true, she did say she might use some of Whitaker’s writing as an example of plagiarism in her classroom.
“What I have seen, I would use in a classroom as evidence to a student to show them this is how we document plagiarism,” Green said. “This is what plagiarism looks like.”
She said she wonders how students will view the situation.
“How are we going to train our students?” Green asked. “That is the big question for me.”
Architecture sophomore Matt Holley said if he were to discover that any of his professors had committed plagiarism in their outside research or work, it would lower his opinion of them as an educator.
“The people that are teaching you should have a higher standard, hopefully they didn’t cheat to get where they’re at,” he said. “It would make me mad if one of my professors cheated.”
History freshman Devon Ironside said he hopes to someday become a history professor and historian. He said in the history field it is especially important to maintain a high standard of academic integrity.
“It’s not like math,” he said. “You can go back and prove (math) to someone, whereas in history, if someone’s work has been discredited, everything they’ve done can be discredited and that’s really detrimental to their profession as a whole.”
The dropped plagiarism allegations against Whitaker brought questions of ethics and values as an educator to Green’s mind.
“I’ve been exceedingly upset by the disregard of our disciplinary standards as historians,” Green said. “I cannot pretend by acquiescing to this decision, that I agree with it or that I agree with the strategies and the methods and the administrative attitude that has been characteristic of what’s been going on the past year and a half.”
Reach the reporter at kmmandev@asu.edu
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