A new diversity and equity leader at Columbia University is the latest academic being accused of plagiarism – allegedly lifting material from more than 30 authors, as well as Wikipedia, for his doctoral dissertation, according to a bombshell report.
Alade McKen, Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s chief DEI officer, allegedly plagiarized about a fifth of his 163-page thesis, The Washington Free Beacon reported, citing an anonymous complaint filed with the Ivy League school.
The complaint lists dozens of examples of alleged plagiarism in his 2021 dissertation at Iowa State University’s School of Education titled, “‘UBUNTU’ I am because we are: A case study examining the experiences of an African-centered Rites of Passage program within a community-based organization.”
More than two pages in the thesis “are a near-verbatim facsimile of Wikipedia’s entry of ‘Afrocentric education,’ which McKen never cites,” Free Beacon reporter Aaron Sibarium wrote on X.
“Other pages lift paragraphs from well-known African scholars, including the University of Rwanda’s Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu, while making small tweaks to their prose, such as reordering certain clauses or changing a ‘were’ to a ‘was,’” Sibarium wrote.
“Some of the scholars McKen allegedly plagiarized appear in the dissertation’s bibliography but not in in-text citations. Others, like Ezeanya-Esiobu, an expert on ‘indigenous knowledge’ who has worked with numerous international agencies, aren’t cited at all,” he continued.
Ezeanya-Esiobu said of the examples strikingly similar to his work: “The passages you shared can definitely be classified as plagiarism.”
McKen allegedly lifted material from Ezeanya-Esiobu’s “A Faulty Foundation: Historical Origins of Formal Education Curriculum in Africa,” published in the Frontiers in African Business Research book series, according to the report..
One example cited from the complaint involves a passage the DEI official allegedly lifted from LaGarrett King, a scholar at the University of Buffalo, who wrote “Black History is Not American History: Toward a Framework of Black Historical Consciousness.”
“It is dismantling white epistemic logic, removing the centering of the oppressor’s historical lens, and lifting the Black perspective voices. To be clear, I am not arguing for an essentialization of African culture and Blackness; Blackness and Black people are complex and multifaceted, but I am interested in the historical narratives that throw away the Eurocentric ways we think about Black people throughout history,” McKen reportedly wrote in his thesis.
The passage is strikingly similar to King’s writing in 2020, according to the complaint.
“In dismantling white epistemic logic, we should ask the question: are we developing Black history through the oppressor’s historical lens, or do our histories represent and center Black perspectives and voices? To be clear, I am not arguing for an essentialization of Blackness; Blackness and Black people are complex and multifaceted; but I am interested in throwing away the Eurocentric ways we think about Black people throughout history,” King wriote, the complaint states.
Another example cited involves the near-verbatim lifting of several paragraphs from Kwayera Archer-Cunningham’s 2007 article “Cultural Arts Education as Community Development: An Innovative Model of Healing and Transformation” in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education.
McKen also allegedly lifted a paragraph from a 2002 paper by Michael Adeyemi and Augustus Adeyinka, “Some Key Issues In African Traditional Education,” which the University of Botswana scholars published in the McGill Journal of Education, The Free Beacon reported.
McKen did not respond to a request from comment by The Free Beacon.
Columbia’s research integrity officer, Naomi Schrag, Iowa State University, Archer-Cunningham, Adeyemi and Adeyinka also did not respond to requests for comment by the outlet.
McKen — who received a master’s degree in higher education administration from Baruch College and holds a certificate in diversity and inclusion from Cornell University — assumed his DEI role in September and oversees all DEI programs at the Irving Medical Center, which includes Columbia’s medical school.
Previously, McKen was the assistant dean of recruitment, diversity and inclusion for Columbia’s graduate school of architecture.
“Columbia has shown an openness to explore new opportunities to advance inclusive practice and is engaged in thinking about how to lead in DEI,” McKen said in a CUIMC article this month. “Everyone here is working to create an environment that drives fair representation. It’s a conscious effort, and there’s always work to be done, but everyone is committed to doing the work.”
A 2020 report by a task force from Columbia’s four medical schools said: “It is very clear that promotion of diversity or even the presence of diversity is insufficient to counter deeply embedded anti-Black racism,” according to a 2020 report by a task force from Columbia’s four medical schools.
“Our self-reflection and actions at this time must be focused on the elimination of racism in all aspects of our work,” it added.
The complaint marks the third time in recent months that a diversity official at an Ivy League school has been hit with charges of plagiarism.
Former Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned amid a plagiarism controversy in January for work she was accused of copying more than 20 years ago.
That same month, Harvard DEI officer Sherri Ann Charleston was hit with dozens of plagiarism allegations tied to her academic work — including one claim she failed to properly cite her own husband’s study.
In February, an anonymous complaint accused Harvard administrator Shirley Greene of plagiarizing her thesis from the University of Michigan in 2008, The Harvard Crimson reported.
Columbia University did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Post. McKen could not immediately be reached.