Allegations of Academic Fraud Revisited: Released Documents Fuel Doubts About Shoukri's Spin

On the morning of February 3, 2009 York Faculty Concerned About the Future of York University exposed the possible fraudulence of the official York University description of newly-appointed FLAPS Dean Martin Singer as a"strong scholar" and a "renowned scholar of Chinese history," as announced in a YFile release January 26 quoting President Shoukri. In response to the allegation of academic fraud, Shoukri, after a long delay, claimed that the false description had been an "error" made by some unidentified scribe in Media Relations/Communications and that Singer had never seen it. At that time, many doubted the veracity of this explanation. Documents just disclosed under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act support those doubts.

The YFCFYU expose was distributed within York at the start of the day February 3. Sheila Embleton received a copy from the Women's Studies listserve. At 9:58AM Embleton forwarded the expose to Shoukri and cc'd it to top York management under the subject heading "From Sheila Read This Very Soon!!!" She wrote: "It seems to me that this could lie dormant, but with bad luck, it could blow up very very quickly - so you need to know right away." At 10:48AM Richard Fisher, VP Marketing and Communications, emailed Jack Dimond, the point person who orchestrated the FLAPS Decanel search for the head-hunting firm of Janet Wright and Associates, with cc's to Embleton and the same top brass. Fisher wrote: "I presume Singer approved the release?" AT 11:18 Embleton
replied to Fisher et al: "The president's office would know whether he did or not - I assume so as it's normal practice." At 8:09PM Shoukri emailed Dimond: "I am in meetings until 10PM. I asked Sheila to alert Martin [Singer]. She will get back to us afterwards."

These emails speak volumes. The exchange between Fisher and Embleton appears to indicate, first, that the false description of Singer did not in fact emerge from Fisher's domain of Media Relations/Communications, as Shoukri alleged, but from the president's own office, which had closely overseen the decanel search process, and that, second, "normal practice" would have had SInger vet it before its release, contrary to Shoukri's claim. These emails also make it plain that Shoukri, Singer and the top administration officials were apprised of the academic fraud allegations on the very first day, yet it took them over a week to concoct a response. Was the truth so hard to find?

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