University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines has been cleared of plagiarism allegations after an independent review found no evidence of wrongdoing.
The University System of Maryland, which oversees U-Md., announced the findings Friday after three rounds of external review led by the law firm Ropes & Gray. Pines, who has been president since 2020, calledfor the review after The Daily Wire publishedplagiarism allegations last year saying he and a co-author lifted significant portions — 1,500 words in one case — of a 1996 tutorial website in two research papers they wrote in 2002 and 2006.
The investigation committee did find that those two works contained text published by another author, the university system said. It also found a discrepancy “in assignment of authorship” in an additional text.
But the committee found that Pines was not responsible for the inclusion of the text or any scholarly misconduct, the university system said.
Pines declined to comment through a university spokesperson, who referred The Washington Post to an emailsent to faculty and staff by the statewide university system’s USM chancellor, a vice chancellor and head of its Board of Regents.
Soon after the allegations surfaced, Pines told faculty that he believed the claims had no merit but acknowledged the paper had “recurrent language in the introductory sections.” He also called for an impartial review, which eventually assessed whether his publications aligned with the accepted practice at the time and did not seek to determine if a citation was missed.
Pines, who is Black, is one of several university leaders to be accused of plagiarism in recent years. Many of have championed diversity initiatives, and some have also been Black. That includes former Harvard University President Claudine Gay, who stepped down after a congressional testimony on college antisemitism and allegations of plagiarism sparked calls for her resignation.
Most recently, Heidi Anderson, president of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, sued a former professor for defamation after she was accused of plagiarizing her 1986 dissertation. Anderson, who has denied the charges, also asked the Maryland university system to investigate the claims.
“It’s been a rough few years in academia,” said Jonathan Bailey, a copyright and plagiarism consultant. “There’s been an ongoing, very directed attack on Black academics seen as ‘DEI hires’ all throughout the country.”
Bailey said if the evidence shows Pines was indeed not responsible for the lifted text, then he agrees with the report’s conclusions. He called for the university to release the full report, which it has thus far declined to do.
Pines’s co-author, Liming Salvino, did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Nor did Joshua Altmann, who as a student wrote the tutorial website involved in the allegations. Altmann now works at an oil company in Qatar.
A year after the allegations surfaced against Pines, Altmann calledthe work “clear plagiarism” in an interview with the student outlet The Diamondback, adding that it was possible Pines was not responsible for the part of the paper allegedly lifted.
On Friday, USM leaders said the investigative committee reviewed many other articles written or co-written by Pines, who was a professor of aerospace engineering and has written more than 250 pieces on engineering.
System leaders said Pines cooperated fully in the investigation.
“We continue to have great confidence in President Pines’s leadership and strongly affirm his role leading the University of Maryland, College Park,” the leaders wrote.
The post University of Maryland president cleared of plagiarism allegations appeared first on Washington Post.
