MIT Hired Six New Diversity Deans. Two of Them Are Serial Plagiarists, Complaint Alleges

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) made a "DEI Strategic Action Plan" in 2021 to hire more diversity officers. However, a recent complaint alleges that at least two of the six DEI officials have been plagiarizing. The complaint points to Tracie Jones-Barrett and Alana Anderson as the serial plagiarists. It is alleged that in her 2023 dissertation, Jones-Barrett stole an entire passage on "ethical considerations" from her classmate without citation. Furthermore, it is alleged that Anderson, who served as the diversity czar for MIT's computer science college, copied material from other scholars without citation. The complaint points out that this appears to violate MIT's own plagiarism policy.

The recent complaint is just one in a string of plagiarism allegations against campus diversity officials. Since the resignation of Claudine Gay, the former president of Harvard University, other DEI officers at various universities have also been accused of research misconduct. Some have copied pages of material from various sources, while others have passed off old studies as new work. The accused administrators have not yet been publicly sanctioned by their universities.

The complaint against Jones-Barrett and Anderson may be harder for MIT to brush aside given the school's high-profile efforts to distance itself from DEI in the post-October 7 era. The institute recently announced that it would no longer require diversity statements from candidates applying to faculty positions, and it led the way in restoring SAT requirements. The pushback has been largely from MIT faculty and has been driven, in part, by a sense that DEI programs excuse and even encourage anti-Semitism. An April article in MIT's faculty newsletter noted that an event on "Jewish inclusion" had whitewashed the school's pro-Palestinian protesters' rhetoric, who have occupied campus buildings, called for "Intifada revolution," and allegedly chanted "death to Zionists."

Title: MIT Hired Six New Diversity Deans. Two of Them Are Serial Plagiarists, Complaint Alleges

Content: In June 2021, MIT made a "DEI Strategic Action Plan" to hire more diversity officers. The plan was aimed at boosting the representation of women and minorities, in part by developing DEI criteria for staff performance reviews, and pledged to "make equity central" to the university "while ensuring the highest standards of excellence."

However, a recent complaint alleges that at least two of the six DEI officials are serial plagiarists. The complaint points to Tracie Jones-Barrett and Alana Anderson as the serial plagiarists. It is alleged that in her 2023 dissertation, Jones-Barrett stole an entire passage on "ethical considerations" from her classmate without citation. Furthermore, it is alleged that Anderson, who served as the diversity czar for MIT's computer science college, copied material from other scholars without citation. The complaint points out that this appears to violate MIT's own plagiarism policy.

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