Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio fired off a letter to Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher demanding all files be released to the public regarding the recent contract awarded to ASU’s plagiarist Professor Dr. Matthew Whitaker’s consulting company to provide the Phoenix Police Department with “cultural consciousness training.”
In a statement released this weekend, DiCiccio demanded that the sole bid contract be cancelled immediately. “Phoenix Police insisted that this contract was thoroughly vetted, which now turns out to be false. At this time, on behalf of the public, I am requesting all files and a thorough history on this contract be released and that this contract be cancelled immediately,” stated DiCiccio. “The Council and public were duped into believing this was a non-issue, which is now clearly not true. Those who pushed for this contract should be fully held accountable.”
Whitaker, founding director of the Center for Race and Democracy at Arizona State University, admitted to the plagiarism in his book, Peace Be Still: Modern Black America from World War II to Barack Obama, in a letter dated July 1, 2015. The professor avoids the use of the word plagiarism and relies on the same sort of vague excuses that got him off the plagiarism hook in 2011.
He writes:
I write you today regarding the anonymous online criticisms of my book, Peace Be Still: Modern Black America from World War II to Barack Obama. I have struggled to overlook the personal nature of the criticisms, and to evaluate and recognize that there was merit to some of them. I alerted ASU administration to the fact that the text contained unattributed and poorly paraphrased material. I accept responsibility for these errors and I’m working with my publisher to make the appropriate corrections.
Peace Be Still: Modern Black America from World War II to Barack Obama deals with the history that is clear to me – told and read to me since childhood. I did not purport to write original history and I drew upon many established sources. I did intend to give full credit to all the sources. But my critics have revealed numerous mistakes that I made. It is painful to recognize that I was so careless as to fail to properly paraphrase and cite sources, despite my reverence and respect for the work of others in this field.
I have been working to make the necessary corrections and to publish a revised and improved version of the text with the statement of apology an admission of error. I fell short of my own expectations and those of people I deeply respect with Peace Be Still. As my (current/former) colleagues, I ask that you accept my apologies for any embarrassment or damage to your reputation that might have arisen from my mistakes in this matter.”
Whitaker was first accused of plagiarisms in 2011, according to Colleen Flaherty’s article in Inside Higher Ed. In Flaherty’s 2014 article she notes that Whitaker was found “not guilty of deliberate academic misconduct, but the case remained controversial. The chair of his department’s tenure committee resigned in protest and other faculty members spoke out against the findings, saying their colleague – who recently had been promoted to full professor – was cleared even though what he did likely would have gotten an undergraduate in trouble.”
Flaherty was writing at the time, of the accusations of plagiarism in Peace Be Still.
According to DiCiccio’s statement, “On May 13 Phoenix Police administrators insisted during a public hearing that a sole bid contract was awarded to Dr. Matthew Whitaker even after they had already hired the professor without Council approval. During that meeting they also told the public that they had thoroughly vetted the plagiarism allegations. The contract was rushed through in 24 hours with very little notice to the public and Council. It was also sent to a subcommittee that same day prior to final Council approval which under any circumstance is unusual.”
In the letter to Zuercher, DiCiccio notes that “due to all these allegations Dr. Matthew Whitaker has been forced to take a reduction in rank and lost his endowed professorship.” According to DiCiccio, the Phoenix City Council retroactively awarded the contract because “Phoenix Police presented that he was exonerated from charges of plagiarism.”
DiCiccio writes, “Phoenix Police testimony turned out to be false.” He alleges that “Phoenix Police also presented to the public that they conducted a thorough background check into these allegations. Phoenix Police administration, in particular Commander Kurtenbach, either knew his testimony was false or he was misled by the sole did contractor.”
As a result of the questions surrounding the contract, DiCiccio is “requesting all background information and files by Phoenix Police in this matter by Friday July 17, 2015. This is public information,” reads DiCiccio’s letter, “and that means ALL files.
DiCiccio also wants to know “what specific search was done to see if there were other people or organizations who could have completed the same level of work. Phoenix Police insisted on this sole bid contract and the public deserves to know what search they completed.”
That sole bid contract, awarded to the Whitaker Group, is for a whopping $268,000.
In her article Flaherty reports that “several senior faculty members in Whitaker’s department accused him of uncited borrowing of texts and ideas from books, Wikipedia and a newspaper article in his written work and a speech.”
In 2012, The Arizona Republic reported: “….Whitaker saw in his colleagues’ assertions more than a desire to preserve intellectual integrity. In a letter to ASU during the investigation, he said his accusers were “out to get me” because he is Black and they resented his promotion last year to full professor.”
The 2012 Arizona Republic article is a brutal recitation of accusations of intellectual theft by Whitaker including an “October 2010 speech he gave at a rally on the historical roots of Senate Bill 1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration law.”
“Professor Whitaker can also tailor keynotes and motivational speeches to the needs of potential audiences and organizations,” according to his website. Dr. Whitaker offers “multi-media consultative services to businesses, k-12 educational institutions, and community groups….” He claims that his “sociological and historical training, and global experiences” make him an expert to hire for “the following areas: Diversity and Inclusion, Democratic Institutions and Processes, Civil and Human Rights, Social Movements and Justice, Black and Latino Relations, and Black Males and Collegiate Success.”
It is unclear at this point how much collegiate success Dr. Whitaker will continue to have.
Whatever the motivation was for the Phoenix Police to push the contract through, DiCiccio makes it clear in his letter that the matter is serious. He concludes, “In fact, Phoenix Police had already brought Dr. Whitaker on board when the Council voted on this procurement. This action would be considered a felony with the federal government because of their very strict policy dealing with procurements.”
Whether anyone will end up in jail is anybody’s guess, but you can be sure that ASU’s doctoral candidates will be watching closely and checking their work for “poorly paraphrased material.”