FRAUD IN THE ACADEMY: A Plagiarism Scandal At Amherst. But note this:

Since some believe that Basler did not ask for help because she didn’t feel that Amherst was a safe and understanding place, both faculty and students brought to the forefront the issue of creating a better environment in which people feel more comfortable coming forward with their academic problems.

“I think the important part of it, I guess, is that I feel that there’s a lot that we can learn about how to support vulnerabilities and deficits,” Professor Karen Sánchez-Eppler said. “How do we as an institution make it a place where when people feel that they’re getting stuck — and I think that this is true for our students as well as our faculty — that when they’re feeling stuck, they can say ‘I’m stuck, help me,’ and not try to cover it up? That’s the kind of soul-searching that we as an institution need to do.”

So, wait, academic fraud — apparently going all the way back to the dissertation — is somehow because the institution isn’t a “safe and understanding place?” With all the people looking for academic jobs, what could account for this attitude? Well, she teaches White Identity. Plus: “Coming from a Mexican-American background, she was particularly interested in the diversity of the student body.”

Imagine that she was a white male Republican, instead of a probable affirmative-action diversity-studies hire. Same response to plagiarism?

To Amherst’s credit, she’s gone, and there’s no indication they’ve relaxed their standards on plagiarism. But I imagine the response would be very different if there were less diversity involved. Which means that the patronizing comments here about feeling “safe” are, well, racist.

Plus, from the comments:

I have to say as a tenured African American faculty member at a flagship state university in the Northeast who has written one scholarly monograph, one textbook, and 12 peer-reviewed articles, I find this hand wringing foolish and incredibly insulting to minority faculty. This woman cheated period. Why? Because, she was too lazy to do her job. Have I had tons of articles rejected? Of course. Have I had book manuscripts rejected? Yes. Did I feel frustrated about my writing everyday of my academic career? Of course. Did I decide to use another scholar’s work and fail to cite them properly? Hell no.

Indeed.