President of the University of Maryland accused of plagiarism

The University of Maryland in College Park will review President Darryll Pines's academic achievements at the request of Pines after he was accused of plagiarizing parts of two essays.

Pines is said to have used 1,500 words from a tutorial website for a 5,000-word 2002 paper he co-authored and later reused the same section in a 2006 paper, according to The Daily Wirea conservative online publication that first raised the allegations. Pines said that while the allegations were unfounded, an independent investigation was “in the best interest of the university.”

Pines, who has been president of Maryland's flagship college in College Park since 2020, is an aerospace engineer who previously headed the university's School of Engineering and has published dozens of articles.

The looming controversy bears similarities to the scandal last year that ultimately led to the ouster of Harvard University President Claudine Gay. Gay made corrections to her academic work and eventually resigned after facing allegations of plagiarism that were first reported by a conservative media outlet.

The allegations

The Daily Wire listed more than a dozen examples of similar texts in a side-by-side comparison of the tutorial website and the 2002 paper written by Pines and co-author Liming Salvino, who is now a senior fellow at Duke University. The Daily Wire– which was founded by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and notes on its website that it “makes no claim to being unbiased” – claimed that Pines copied numerous passages from a 1996 tutorial written by Joshua Altmann, then a student in Australia, without acknowledging or citing his work.

Pines denied the allegations on Wednesday evening.

“While I do not believe these allegations have merit, an impartial review is in the best interest of the university,” he wrote in an email to faculty members that the university shared. “In accordance with existing policies regarding the conduct of research, I have asked the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) to initiate an independent review.”

He said the results would be shared with University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay Perman.

Pines added that he was “firmly convinced that our results, data and findings are sound,” but acknowledged “repetitive wording in the introductory paragraphs.” When the plagiarism allegations arose, he said, he “immediately contacted” his co-author “to review the manuscript.”

He also pointed to the rampant control of higher education leaders.

“Over the past year, like many of my colleagues, university presidents and chancellors, I have faced aggressive scrutiny both personally and professionally, which has also raised questions about my decision-making and values,” Pines noted in the message.

The Office of Research Integrity will complete the review within 60 days in accordance with University policy.

Plagiarism check

Lisa Rasmussen, professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and editor-in-chief of the journal Accountability in researchnoted that the allegations against Pines were complicated by the fact that he co-authored the article. In an email, she wrote that there are many cases in the literature “where one person has plagiarized and the other person did not know about it.”

Others argued that the number of authors made little difference.

“It shouldn't matter,” said Sam Bruton, a philosophy professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and former director of its Office of Research Integrity. “The fact that this individual was one of the authors of an article that made credible allegations of misconduct creates an obligation on the University of Maryland to investigate and decide whether or not an investigation should be conducted.”

While the consequences for Pines “could be somewhat mitigated” if it turns out that his co-author plagiarized, Bruton said “it is not entirely excusable” that Pines did not notice the problem. He also suggested that if The Daily WireThe reporting is accurate: “There is no doubt that this is plagiarism.”

Rasmussen took a similar stance.

“If everything is as reported, it is indisputable that this sample is a plagiarism,” she said.

Both Rasmussen and Bruton believe the allegations against Pines, who is black, continue a pattern of attacks by conservative activists and publications on scientists of color in recent months. Black scientists in particular have been the target of anonymous plagiarism complaints.

“It is also undisputed that it is a declared aim of some political partisans to attack certain groups of academics on the grounds of plagiarism,” said Rasmussen. “Even in cases where the plagiarism allegations are true, this targeted approach seems at least as problematic as the plagiarism itself.”

Luke Rosiak, the Daily Wire The reporter who wrote about the allegations has covered four cases of alleged plagiarism this year. All four people accused of plagiarism are black: Lisa Cook, a longtime academic and member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; Natalie Perry, a program director at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine; Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York; and Pines.

In three of these cases, Rosiak worked with Chris Rufo, a diversity, equity and inclusion activist who first brought the allegations against Gay to light. Although Rosiak was not involved in this case, he and Rufo have written about plagiarism allegations against Cook, Bowman and Pines.

Neither Rosiak nor Rufo responded to a request for comment from Inside Higher EdBut Brent Scher, editor-in-chief of The Daily Wirewrote by email: “Our original reporting on Pines speaks for itself and we stand by it.”