BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[Psamathe]

Is the common view on here that there was nothing amiss in the Jason Arday story at all? Or simply that it was given excessive media coverage? I didn't follow it as it unfolded but it does seem that there were aspects of it that merited investigation. It's a tragic outcome but I think he was ill served by Cambridge, and some vociferous supporters, until the point where there was no professional off ramp.

I also didn't follow the detail, in part because it would be quite impossible to assess the detail eg plagiarism accusations would have meant studying the works, having access to the allegedly plagiarised works, etc. and without that one is dependent on indirect reports.

It can also get complex as not every institution readily reveals details of how what has been done eg

Cambridge University defends its mental health support for Jason Arday​

University says it continued to provide support after resignation of academic, who was found dead on Friday
...
The university said it had continued to provide Arday with extensive mental health support and security measures, including installing panic alarms and screening racist emails and post, after he resigned from his post as professor of sociology of education this month.

 

[secretsqirrel]

Eric Cantona

I'm sure no-one here would pick up a false claim from a photoshopped newspaper headline, but it's out there...

View attachment 16885

Eric Cantona was right. The gullibles will follow the troller.

 

[First Aspect]

That was for the pun.

 

[briantrumpet]

Thinking aloud ie no specific knowledge of the dismissal but it might be that Ghent University decided they wanted rid of him because of the pile-on but to have used that path might have required warnings, formal warnings, written warnings, review boards, etc. whereas they found they could bypass all that using errors in his appointment.

I assume from the University perspective the priority was to sever their association and maybe they just used the fastest means to achieve that.

I was thinking similar.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Is the common view on here that there was nothing amiss in the Jason Arday story at all? Or simply that it was given excessive media coverage? I didn't follow it as it unfolded but it does seem that there were aspects of it that merited investigation. It's a tragic outcome but I think he was ill served by Cambridge, and some vociferous supporters, until the point where there was no professional off ramp.

I think there are two aspects. On the professional accusations of plagiarism, he had been cleared by his PhD awarding University. This triggered lots of other claims regarding lies and exaggerations he had made in relation to his personal life, many of which seem to have merit, but whether you feel he should have been judged for personal indisctretions is your choice.

I have no interest in his personal life and don't believe it should form the basis of any interrogation into anyone's professional career, unless someone is known to be engaging in criminal activity (which Arday clearly was not).

The two real issues for me are the motives behind the concerns raised and the proportionality of the coverage. No question that Nathan Cofnas, the 'academic' who started this has racist views and one can only assume targeted Arday as he was black. There was clearly malcious intent there, regardless of whether or not Arday's professional credentials were fully merited.

This matters as it was the basis for the then disproportionate level of coverage. Right wing media made him a target and there was a clear undercurrent of racist ideology under the implicit 'black people aren't qualified for high level positions' trope. Cambridge are also complicit in this as they hired Arday to great fanfare and made him a target, and Arday himself put himself in a vulnerable position by lying about his achievements. Regardless, the sheer number of stories about him were massively over the top and no doubt contributed to his death.

My view, Jason was in all likelihood a bit of a chancer who had earned a lot but also embellished to get a little extra out of life. A lot of people do it and I have no issue with that, although some will. I also feel had he been white this would have been a non issue. There was a motive to bring him down professionally and a targeted campaign by the media to interrogate every aspect of his life, which ultimately ended in an avoidable and unnecessary death.

 

[AuroraSaab]

I think there would have been an issue if he'd been white. Quite a few academics have been scrutinised for plagiarism and unverifiable claims, ruining their own careers. Some of his claims are extraordinary and would have attracted attention regardless.
Others raised concerns about his work and claims, not just Cofnas - including a TES journalist/academic who got a visit from the police for his trouble.

https://www.theguardian.com/educati...s-surrounding-cambridge-professor-jason-arday

I think his misfortune was to become the poster boy for diversity at Cambridge. There are many ethnic minority academics but the high profile promotion of him - and his remarkable back story - by Cambridge and others meant any backlash was always going to be harsh. An awful, tragic outcome nonetheless.

 

[C R]

I think there would have been an issue if he'd been white. Quite a few academics have been scrutinised for plagiarism and unverifiable claims, ruining their own careers. Some of his claims are extraordinary and would have attracted attention regardless.
Others raised concerns about his work and claims, not just Cofnas - including a TES journalist/academic who got a visit from the police for his trouble.

https://www.theguardian.com/educati...s-surrounding-cambridge-professor-jason-arday

I think his misfortune was to become the poster boy for diversity at Cambridge. There are many ethnic minority academics but the high profile promotion of him - and his remarkable back story - by Cambridge and others meant any backlash was always going to be harsh. An awful, tragic outcome nonetheless.

All that is true. It is also true that the pile on was racist.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

I think there would have been an issue if he'd been white. Quite a few academics have been scrutinised for plagiarism and unverifiable claims, ruining their own careers. Some of his claims are extraordinary and would have attracted attention regardless.
Others raised concerns about his work and claims, not just Cofnas - including a TES journalist/academic who got a visit from the police for his trouble.

https://www.theguardian.com/educati...s-surrounding-cambridge-professor-jason-arday

I think his misfortune was to become the poster boy for diversity at Cambridge. There are many ethnic minority academics but the high profile promotion of him - and his remarkable back story - by Cambridge and others meant any backlash was always going to be harsh. An awful, tragic outcome nonetheless.

There may have been an issue with a white academic, but I would argue not one that saw dozens of articles in major national newspapers. It would likely have been a footnote at best in a single article.

I would take issue with there being many ethnic minority academics, there are about 250 black Professors out of 23,000 in UK Universities. White people (I am white, obviously) like to pretend that this is not structural racism but of course it is. I am not having a go at you personally AS, but us white folk like to feel we achieve things purely on merit. I believe this is rubbish, I have benefitted my entire life from being a white middle class man, I don't face any barriers to entry professionally or personally. There is little point kidding myself I don't benefit from massive cultural privilege.

 

[AuroraSaab]

Some of it on social media was. I think it was also used more widely to claim that diversity is given preeminence over merit in academic posts in the UK. I think in his case it possibly was, but there are hundreds of ethnic minority academics in our universities who have simply worked their way up in a conventional way.
Again, I feel the fault for some of that backlash lies with Cambridge.

 

[AuroraSaab]

I would take issue with there being many ethnic minority academics, there are about 250 black Professors out of 23,000 in UK Universities. White people (I am white, obviously) like to pretend that this is not structural racism but of course it is.

It's 3,300 from ethnic minorities. 14%, which isn't that far short of the 18% of the general population.

To be a professor is the pinnacle of an academic career. It's really for the absolutely outstanding candidates (unless it's honorary or a special chair). Are you saying that there is structural racism against black academics but not UK Asian or say UK Chinese applicants?

Black candidates are around 1.5% of post grad students, so it follows that the number going on to be Professors would be similarity small.
I would think economic factors play a large role in that in that less well off social groups, which would likely include the UK black community, are less likely to be able to afford post grad courses. Also, cultural of course - academia is not seen as an option for working class kids regardless of race. My ethnic minority friends wanted their kids to be doctors or accountants not teachers.

I am not having a go at you personally AS, but us white folk like to feel we achieve things purely on merit. I believe this is rubbish, I have benefitted my entire life from being a white middle class man, I don't face any barriers to entry professionally or personally. There is little point kidding myself I don't benefit from massive cultural privilege.

I don't disagree. Do you think Jason Arday was appointed purely on academic merit on the basis of his research and teaching skills? And that his back story - mute as a child, couldn't read til he was 18 - wasn't seen by Cambridge as something they could milk for publicity and kudos? This is why I blame Cambridge in part.

I enjoyed neither your male privilege, nor your class privilege btw so I don't share your guilt too much.

Edit: I think a class breakdown of UK professorships would be more interesting in terms of barriers to academic progression.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I think there would have been an issue if he'd been white. Quite a few academics have been scrutinised for plagiarism and unverifiable claims, ruining their own careers. Some of his claims are extraordinary and would have attracted attention regardless.
Others raised concerns about his work and claims, not just Cofnas - including a TES journalist/academic who got a visit from the police for his trouble.
I think his misfortune was to become the poster boy for diversity at Cambridge. There are many ethnic minority academics but the high profile promotion of him - and his remarkable back story - by Cambridge and others meant any backlash was always going to be harsh. An awful, tragic outcome nonetheless.

Clearly there must have been...and there will be undoubtedly be more with the growth of AI... but has any one of them in this country had the quite the same amount of coverage in the MSM? I cannot find any record of a similar case wrt to press coverage...or with such a tragic conclusion.

Making him a "poster boy" for diversity by Cambridge was possibly the catalyst to all this as it made Cambridge and him a target for those media outlets who dislike the concept of DEI, but let this not hide the fact that Cambridge did not start or take part in the subsequent press pile-on. That was a purely politically motivated pile-on with a convenient high profile black person centre stage. (With echoes of Claudine Gay, another black academic, who resigned as President of Harvard in 2024).

 

[secretsqirrel]

A quick Google tells me that Mark Carney was accused of plagiarism while at Oxford. Seems to have done alright for himself.

 

[AuroraSaab]

Very few academics have been bigged up like Jason Arday was. He was encouraged to become a celebrity - claimed he was paid 1.4 million for his autobiography, was a guest editor on Today - so he had a higher place to fall from than most. I think some of the social media pile on was racist but outlandish claims by a high profile, highly promoted academic are a matter of public interest.

 

[AuroraSaab]

A quick Google tells me that Mark Carney was accused of plagiarism while at Oxford. Seems to have done alright for himself.

It's not just the plagiarism in this case. If Carney had gone on to an academic career and been found out he might well have ending up resigning.

 

[secretsqirrel]

It's not just the plagiarism in this case. If Carney had gone on to an academic career and been found out he might well have ending up resigning.

I’m glad he became Governor of the BoE and Prime Minister of Canada instead. Wasted in academialand.