Madonna Constantine

Madonna G. Constantine was an American psychology and education professor who formerly taught at Teachers College, Columbia University. She was fired in 2008 on grounds of plagiarism.

Education and early career Constantine earned a B.S. in psychology from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1984, an M.S. from the same institution in counseling, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Memphis. She worked at the University of Texas at Austin for five years at the Counseling and Mental Health Center before becoming the director of the Temple University vocational counseling center.

She joined Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1998, earned tenure in 2001, and (after a brief interlude at Ohio State University ) became a full professor in 2003.

Constantine's primary areas of research were racial micro aggressions and multicultural competence, topics on which she published frequently with Teachers College colleague Derald Wing Sue.

Noose incident In October 2007, Constantine, an African-American, received national attention when a noose was discovered hanging on the door of her office. Her friend and collaborator Derald Wing Sue and her faculty colleague Marie L. Miville strongly supported her.

On October 12, the American Counseling Association offered Constantine their full support.

A day after Teachers College officials were asked for security tapes that could help identify the suspect in the October 9, 2007 noose incident, they agreed to release them. Originally, the college had said it would do so only if the tapes were subpoenaed.

There were allegations that Constantine placed the noose on her own door in an attempt to fabricate an apparent hate crime, or that her friends were involved in placing the noose. In March 2008, a grand jury was convened to investigate the noose incident.

Plagiarism and dismissal In December 2005, Constantine stepped down as department chair, and faculty elected Suniya S. Luthar to replace her. Early in Luthar's tenure as chair, she was approached by a former Teachers College faculty member as well as some students, all claiming that Constantine had used their scholarly writings without attribution. Luthar brought these complaints to Darlyne Bailey-then Dean at Teachers College. Bailey (a close friend of Constantine), reportedly sought to protect Constantine's job at Teachers College despite her own conflict of interest. Bailey forced Luthar to step down as department chair, and as the new chair, appointed Derald Wing Sue — another close friend and collaborator of Constantine. In May 2007 (a few months before the noose incident), Constantine filed a lawsuit against Luthar alleging defamation, libel and slander and asked for $100,000 in damages. Several weeks later, Constantine quietly withdrew the lawsuit against Luthar, without explanation. As she commented on the incident, however, Fuhrman told The New York Times that she had heard "nothing but accolades" from Constantine's students. Although the police had clearly ruled Luthar out as a suspect,

After their eighteen-month investigation, the law firm issued a report citing "numerous instances in which she [Constantine] used others' work without attribution in papers she published in academic journals over the past five years." Constantine denied the charges of plagiarism and claimed that she was a victim of institutional racism. Constantine alleged that evidence she presented establishing her innocence regarding plagiarism was ignored even after independent third parties had reportedly corroborated said evidence. The Spectator also conducted its own analysis of the 36 passages that were involved in Teachers College's determination that Constantine was guilty of academic plagiarism, and the paper concluded that there were significant similarities between the passages by Constantine and passages by Professor Christine Yeh and two Teachers College students. A later Columbia Spectator article reported that Constantine's attorneys had presented evidence to the Columbia Spectator as well as to Columbia which the attorneys asserted proved Constantine's "prior authorship of all of the passages that ... are claimed ... to have been plagiarized". Columbia officials rejected those claims, saying the authenticity of that evidence could not be verified. In October 2008, Constantine filed suit against the college, alleging that her termination was "arbitrary, irrational, and unauthorized", but the suit was "disposed".

Constantine filed a defamation lawsuit against Columbia in April 2009. In March 2012, The New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed the dismissal of Constantine's defamation action against Columbia University and others.

Publications Constantine, M.G. (2007). "Racial microaggressions against African American Clients in Cross-Racial Counseling Relationships". Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 1–16. Smith, T.B., Constantine, M.G., Dunn, T.W., Dinehart, J.M., & Montoya, J.A. (2006). "Multicultural Education in the Mental Health Professions: A Meta-Analytic Review". Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 132–145. Constantine, M.G., Warren, A.K., & Miville, M.L. (2005). "White Racial Identity Dyadic Interactions in Supervision: Implications for Supervisees' Multicultural Counseling Competence". Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 490–496. Constantine, M.G., Anderson, G.M., Berkel, L.A., Caldwell, L.D., & Utsey, S.O. (2005). "Examining the Cultural Adjustment Experiences of African International College Students: A Qualitative Analysis". Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 57–66. Constantine, M.G. (2002). "Predictors of Satisfaction with Counseling: Racial and Ethnic Minority Clients' Attitudes Toward Counseling and Ratings of Their Counselors' General and Multicultural Counseling Competence". Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49, 255–263.