There was a recent article in the Atlantic about a Black tenure-track professor who suspected he was a DEI hire after he became continually tokenized and pressured to take on DEI roles that he felt had nothing to do with his job. He ultimately left academia altogether.
I don’t know if this is a common problem, but assuming he’s telling the truth, that faculty was fuckin’ bonkers.
He was particularly upset with the anti-union, anti-workers rights position of the school that espoused progressive values. And noted that when Trump started to crack down on DEI in universities, the faculty unanimously voted to halt DEI activities. Clearly they didn’t hold too tightly to those values.
Nice excuse, except there doesn’t seem to be good evidence that people with autism are any more prone to plagiarism then non-autistics.
Stay tuned for abundant finger-pointing and recriminations as a result of Arday’s death. A Cambridge-sponsored fundraiser for his family would be appropriate.
If this is ruled a suicide, which seems likely to me, then this may sound a little harsh, but I don’t have much sympathy for this guy. He never took ownership of his lies, blaming any criticism of him as racially motivated. Then, when he suffered the repercussions of his lies, he doesn’t apologize, doesn’t work to improve himself, doesn’t pick himself up and admit his shortcomings, but instead kills himself, leaving behind an undoubtedly grieving family. That is someone who has refused to accept responsibility to the very end.
The Guardian reports: “… his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious. …police are understood not to believe anyone else was involved in the death.”
I can see your POV, but depression can be a dangerous thing to have. If he had won this bout and survived, who knows? He might have learned something. The problem is that suicidal ideation can happen as instantly as flicking on a light switch, and can kill you before you have a chance to think anything through.
If this was in fact suicide, I’d be shocked if it were his first depressive episode.
that’s not the way I see it, but I will concede that maybe others could interpret it that way. I see it as someone taking the tragic, but still cowardly step of refusing to deal with issues that he created for himself.
I felt that way when Epstein killed himself, but this guy only plagierized and made some stuff up. I do feel sympathy that these relatively minor transgressions would carry a death sentence. He could have worked this stuff out over time. But when you’re suicidal you don’t really see any other option.
Most suicide is a result of depression, but I don’t think this one was. This is a result of the fact that his life really was unraveling, and very quickly. Granted, it’s his own fault that his life was unraveling, and granted, he could have found a new course for his life somewhere other than academia. But I think it’s still enough to explain a suicide, even without depression.
