I’d argue it was also his extraordinary claims, such as running 600 miles in 6 days or completing 4 marathons on consecutive days with a hairline leg fracture. Catnip for subeditors. As was the massive PR campaign accompanying his appointment at Jesus College.
Really? Nothing to do with being black and autistic? Or that the campaign against him was launched by Nathan Cofnas, the “race realist” who dowsn’t believe that black people are intelligent enough to hold academic positions and the promoted by right-wing lobbyists? Really?
Cofnas wasn’t connected to the investigative reporting by Times Higher Education last autumn which found 68 pages of comparison between Arday’s papers and his students’ - with typos intact. It also uncoveed evidence he had falsified a medical study he authored. The piece was spiked following a SLAPP threat from notorious lawfare firm Carter-Ruck, on instructions from Arday.
The first Cambridge investigation made the mistake of discounting the allegations against Arday because the complaint had been brought by another racist. This despite the investigation having found copious corroborative evidence from Arday’s colleagues, who were deeply concerned by his comduct.
Can you give me examples of another academic who has suffered similar levels of witch hunt by the British media? Or are there really no other academics who do stuff like this? You know as well as I do why the witch hunt was as relentless as it was.
Even when Arday resigned his post, the witch hunt continued. I’ve heard that journalists talked about Arday killing himself long before he did. The focus should be on the process of Arday’s appointment. It wasn’t Arday’s alleged plaigarism or alleged fantasisings that caused the media witch hunt: it was because he was lauded for being young, autistic and black. Racists can’t stand stuff like.
Can you give me another academic that’s such a Walter Mitty? His bizarre extreme claimed lifestory played a big part in the media coverage - it is silly season after all - and I can’t think of an academic like that but you may remember the case a few years ago of Nicholas Rossi, the American fugitive rapist found on a Covid ward in Scotland who fought extradition by claiming he was Irishman Arthur Knight, never even visited the US. The outlandish claims and behaviour magnified coverage of that case much as it magnified the Arday affair.
And yeah, race was a factor in the Arday case, the Heil and Telegraph can’t help themselves, but there are more sober issues which should be discussed openly - why were Arday’s colleagues, who had serious concerns - unwilling to come forward with complaints lest they be labelled as racist? Why did it take vile racists to actually get the institution to look into the matter? Isn’t something broken here? Some of the coverage has been like that.
With angles of bizarre behaviour, academic fraud, race relations in academia, labour relations in academia, the imminent book, there are bound to be more articles than a straightforward story.
Maybe not Walter Mitty (Gosh! An autistic man doesn’t manage his fantasies in the same way as neurotypicals! What a crime!) but I can give you many, many accounts of senior UK academics involved in plagiarism, falsification of data and a survey of UK academics in which one in seven admitted to plagiarism. I can also give you names of academics who have encouraged the rape of children, sexually assaulted students, theft and other forms of real criminal behaviour… I don’t doubt you could name any of these because the mainstream media didn’t whip up such a lynch mob against them. Because they were all white I suspect. And really you can’t name these because you’re hung up on Arday being a black man as well. For you and the rest of the baying mob, that’s Arday’s true crime: he’s black, autistic and was taking the seat of a privately-educated white man.
It’ll be interesting to see which of Arday’s colleagues actually come forward. My suspicion is that the none of the allegations of academic malpractice will be upheld and Arday’s autistic “fantasising” (for want of a better term) will certainly not recognised as criminality. What WILL be revealed is the extent of the lobbying done by the Race Science Network.
So you assume that the only issue people could have with him is his identity? Thats some very dangerous pedestal building there.
We’ll see. The smears against Arday are already coming undone and Cofnas has been suspended from his post. The actual dangerous aspect is that people like you pretend to be moderate while enabling racists to engage in witch hunts like this. Maybe you need to do some reflection - but my suspicion is that you actually agree with them.
This is why it’s not Ardays fault but the people who are responsible for verifying the background of the person they hired, and maintaining academic integrity. He should never have been in that position to begin with if they had even bothered to do their jobs right.
Oh it’s Arday’s fault for ripping off his students and committing academic fraud. Completely on him.
It’s the College’s and University’s fault for Blackwashing and promoting someone to a position they didn’t deserve to get good publicity. Also their fault for offhandedly dismissing complaints about him as racism.
It’s the media’s fault for overexposing the story, though it’s silly season and a perfect silly story.
I think that’s reasonable but someone like Arady should never ever have been in that position to begin with which is my main point. Is it the village idiot’s fault for being the village idiot? Or is it the university’s fault for making the village idiot a senior professor?
And this is the problem with DEI implementation. For everry worthy hire, there is the risk of an institution forcing through an unworthy candidate for PR optics purposes. When people are so convinced of their righteousness it’s tempting to label dissent as racist out of hand. It’s deeply concerning that the rally in Trafalgar Square attracted non-critical support from senior MPs including Zack Polanski and Jeremy Corbyn, without any apparent critical thinking involved. Was Arday the messiah, or was he a very naughty boy? I suspect the truth is in the middle.
Agree. People who are essentially racists and hung up on their obsession with so-called DEI appointments are going to continue to focus on Arday’s shortcomings rather than this. But to go back to the original subject of this thread: it is the racist, anti-DEI mob that hounded Arday to his death.
Or was it the pro-DEI mob who pressured an institution to elevate an academic to a position they didn’t deserve and put them in the firing line, labelling any complaint as racist? Neither scenario is satisfactory.
To be clear, the “shortcoming” here is plagiarism and falsifying evidence, the worst offence in academia. Sure, the racist anti-DEI mob played a part. But is that because they were the only ones prepared to stick their heads above the parapets?
There were many regular academic colleagues of his who expressed concerns when the investigation bothered to ask, but for some reason they were afraid to lodge the initial complaint themselves. This is concerning.
The polarisation of society is an incredibly problematic trend. Truth is now subjective and there is a baying mob backing every viewpoint. The bad guys won.
Huh? Aren’t YOU one of the bad guys in this instance?
For wanting all academics to be held to the same standards? Is that controversial?
