Professor accused of plagiarism is fired

NEW YORK (AP) — A Columbia University professor who drew widespread attention when a noose was discovered hanging from her office door has been fired over allegations of plagiarism.

Administrators at Columbia’s Teachers College said in a letter to faculty Monday that Madonna G. Constantine’s appeal of the plagiarism charges has been rejected.

Bill Anderson, a spokesman for Teachers College, said Constantine had been terminated but that she could challenge the dismissal.

Her attorney, Paul Giacomo, said she has until July 15 to decide. He called the firing “purely retaliatory.”

Constantine was a tenured professor of education and psychology and had written extensively about race.

She was sanctioned in February for plagiarism after the university determined she had used the work of others without attribution in papers published in academic journals over the past five years. She had remained on staff pending an appeal, with her lawyer saying at the time that she had been targeted because she is black.