Former Princeton architecture dean Alejandro Zaera-Polo filed a lawsuit to the Superior Court of Mercer County earlier this week against Princeton University, claiming that the school is guilty of libel and breach of contract. Zaera-Polo was asked to resign from his position by President Christopher L. Eisgruber in October 2014 due to plagiarism allegations in texts that were used in the Exhibition Elements of Architecture at the 2014 Venice Biennale.
In an official response last March, Zaera-Polo wrote that his purpose of removing the academic citations in the texts was to create a more casual narrative for the general public, and that he “explicitly [states] the non-academic nature of the document, its speculative and polemic intent, and its non-suitability as a source.”
Neither the Superior Court of Mercer County's records department nor Zaera-Polo's attorneys have provided a copy of his complaint, reports say. Princeton University issued this statement regarding Zaera-Polo's pending lawsuit:
“The University is aware that Professor Zaera-Polo has filed an action against it and others relating to the investigation and disposition of research misconduct claims asserted against him and to his resignation as Dean of the School of Architecture. As noted in the Rules and Procedures of the Faculty, the ‘University is committed to high scholarly standards in the substance of research and to high ethical standards in the conduct of research’ and to the fair and unbiased adjudication of all misconduct complaints.
The University is confident that the officials and faculty members who investigated and adjudicated the claims against Professor Zaera-Polo did so fairly and in accordance with University policies and procedures. The University will defend its position in court, and looks forward to the successful resolution of these claims.”
H/T nj.com
Previously on Archinect:
Zaera-Polo responds to alleged Wikipedia plagiarism in Biennale texts
Zaera-Polo steps down as dean of Princeton's School of Architecture
12 Comments
You have besmirched my honor, senor!
Donna will probably get upset with me, but I have to say - he's a very handsome man.
EKE, maybe, in a strange way, that's moving towards equity....
More news on this, picked up by NJ.com
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2016/06/former_dean_accuses_princeton_u_of_releasing_confi.html#incart_email
Looks as if the University finally disclosed one investigation but failed to disclose others!
"A battle between Princeton University and a former dean accused of plagiarism continued this week, with the former dean accusing the school of openly discussing confidential information.
Alejandro Zaera-Polo, a current professor and former dean of architecture, lambasted the school Monday for making a public statement last week in which they referenced a 2014 investigation into the plagiarism claims.
He said the investigation is confidential and shouldn't have been discussed or referenced.
"Now it is the university itself that is releasing confidential information and reporting on a faculty adjudication," he said Monday.
The disagreement between the university and the former dean of architecture started in 2014 when a graduate student accused Zaera-Polo of plagiarizing texts on an architecture exhibit from Wikipedia, he said.
The accusations against Zaera-Polo appeared online and were even sent to a reporter at the New York Times, the professor claimed.
Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber quickly forced Zaera-Polo to step down from his position as dean, which he did in October of that year, Zaera-Polo said.
Though the incident is two years old, the case was brought up again in a lawsuit that the former dean filed against the university and the unnamed graduate student last week. In it he claimed that the allegations are false and that his reputation took an unfair hit after he stepped down.
The university responded to his complaint last week.
"The University is confident that the officials and faculty members who investigated and adjudicated the claims against Professor Zaera-Polo did so fairly and in accordance with University policies and procedures," the statement said.
For Zaera-Polo, the statement was another affront to his reputation.
He responded Monday, saying that the investigation itself was confidential information and should not have been discussed.
"The University's latest statement constitutes one more violation of its own rules of confidentiality, and confirms a pattern of breaches in contempt for my reputation," Zaera-Polo said Monday.
He also called the statement "incomplete and misleading," saying that he was not the only person investigated after the allegations came out.
Eisgruber, university Dean of Faculty Deborah Prentice and the graduate student – who is still unnamed – were all investigated, Zaera-Polo said.
He said the investigations into the two administrators and the student all had to do with confidentiality issues.
Zaera-Polo specifically discussed the unnamed graduate student, claiming the student was upset after being "sidelined" from the 2014 exhibition. He said the student was to blame for the incident.
"He did enter the archive of the project several times through a device I was unaware of, copied materials and falsified their status to make misrepresentations of my work to the University," Zaera-Polo said.
The student was investigated but exonerated, he claimed.
In a statement Wednesday, the university said that they could not comment on the specifics of the case, including whether or not the other investigations ever took place.
But in an early statement in March they said that Zaera-Polo's claims about the nature of his resignation were wrong.
"He was asked to step down in large measure because of statements he made in writing that indicated he was unfamiliar with the University's policies on plagiarism and that he may have directed his collaborators to breach the rules of the University," the university said."
This one from the Daily Princetonian itself:
http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2016/05/professor-zaera-polo-files-complaint-for-defamation-by-members-of-u/
Apparently Princeton is refusing an independent review of the whole process or a full disclosure.
Chickens coming to roast.
Just found this in the Prince:
http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2016/10/amended-lawsuit-against-u-filed-by-former-dean-of-architecture-alleges-dismissed-investigations-into-prentice-eisgruber/
It looks as if there was quite a lot of stuff happening silently in the background, and it is now exploding in a thunder.
But no trace of Mr. Always-dirty and his geriatric faculty. Although there is a mention of "unauthorized and secret invasion of Zaera-Polo’s private computer archive," allegedly one of their most accomplished jobs in the process. Is the University shielding them?
I have asked for my very own copy of the amended complaint and will post it when I get it. It looks promising!
Chickens coming to roast.
Just found this in the Prince:
http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2016/10/amended-lawsuit-against-u-filed-by-former-dean-of-architecture-alleges-dismissed-investigations-into-prentice-eisgruber/
It looks as if there was quite a lot of stuff happening silently in the background, and it is now exploding in a thunder.
But no trace of Mr. Always-dirty and his geriatric faculty. Although there is a mention of "unauthorized and secret invasion of Zaera-Polo’s private computer archive," allegedly one of their most accomplished jobs in the process. Is the University shielding them?
I have asked for my very own copy of the amended complaint and will post it when I get it. It looks promising!
So, as promised: here is the amended lawsuit of Zaera-Polo vs. Princeton, fresh from the court, filed on October 12. In the very thread that contains the authentic “August 3 posting,” the onus of the defamation claims. Princeton has not filed any reply since June, which is strange since the customary period to file a reply in a civil lawsuit is around 4-5 weeks.
One has to tread carefully here because these are the Plaintiff’s allegations, but if they happen to be true, both Eisgruber and Prentice will need some cheek to stay put after after acting so self-righteously and then presiding over such an unbelievable chain of mistakes and breaches. It looks as if the reason for the amended complaint is the University’s revelations about the investigation and the resulting attributions, which are in breach of the University’s confidentiality of process, and the claims of fairness and ethical standards, which appear to be massively overstated an may put into question not just the moral status of the President and the Dean of Faculty but of a string of “perfunctory” committees and watchdogs. Eisgruber appears to have exonerated himself of breach of process and derelict of duty and Prentice appears to have engaged in breaches of confidentiality, several breaches of process, breach of the University standards of proof, breach of data and misuse of information. If the complaints are true, Princeton’s “fairness” and ethical standards have been brought down to an entirely new level, directly under Eisgruber’s supervision. See underlined paragraphs!
https://we.tl/JaZCaJ5gbq
But no explicit mention of Mr. Always-dirty and the geriatric faculty, which appear to be hiding behind a confidentiality which they were first to breach. The University is now the target of the attack. That is also where the money is. Zaera-Polo is obviously rising the price tag.
That's old news just surfacing in court. There is more interesting gossip around: apparently Nader Tehrani and Sarah Whiting were in the committee which investigated AZP on behalf of the university. Then, they reappeared in the shortlist that the search committee made to fill the Dean's post, run by Stan Allen and constituted by at least two of the "geriatric faculty". At the last minute, Princeton realized that the search committee had included all the external guests to the investigation committee and shot them down. So Monica won because she was not involved. That's how things happened.
If these records AZP is seeking to make public are disclosed by the court the shit is gonna hit the fan and will spread way beyond Princeton.
had Nader as a jurist once. Years later, after reflecting, I can forgive him for being Persian (nothing you can do about that), but to be quite honest, not the brightest or most intelligent person I ever had to "admire" in a crit. In short, he could be flippping burgers at McDonalds in Tehran or he could be some overly hyped architect in the US...
I just fealt like he was ridiculously naive about reality.
But at least he was quick to reply to the AIA. Monica is just a bureaucrat, perfect for Eisgruber's project for the School of Architecture. Btw, Princeton has not filed any response yet to the allegations, although a month has passed already. Just noticed my link to the complaint does not work. I will reload it soon.
a better link as promised!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByvUQL89DZdScE1TSFc5elB3cmM/view?usp=sharing
as any drama queen persian would do. i imagine Iran a nation of little Donald Trumps or Nadars, or so i have been told by exciles and what nots....
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