Madonna Constantine, a former professor at Columbia's Teachers College, is suing the university for $200 million. The lawsuit claims Columbia has defamed her by dismissing her after their plagiarism probe; the Columbia Spectator reports, "The introduction to the 92-page complaint is titled 'the academic lynching of Professor Madonna Constantine,' and states that these allegations were part of an 'invidious scheme to ruin the scholarly reputation of the Plaintiff through a conspiracy to drum up and eventually publish false claims against the Plaintiff.'" (It should be noted two of Constantine's accusers are minorities, one black, one Asian.) A Teachers College spokeperson said, "This case is totally without merit, and we intend to defend against it rigorously." Constantine's tenure at Teachers College included a 2007 incident where a noose was found hanging on her office door; no suspects were ever found. more ›

Madonna Constantine, the former Teachers College professor whose office door had a noose hanging on it last year, is now suing Columbia University over her termination. Constantine had been dismissed over plagiarism charges after an 18-month long investigation and she claimed the school was conducting a witch hunt (though it should be noted two of her accusers were minorities--one black and one Asian). The Post notes that the lawsuit says the accusers are the real plagiarizers while the Daily News reports that lawsuit now says Constantine was the victim of "extreme bias," stating, "They took [Constantine's] guilt as a foregone conclusion and conducted no investigation beyond that required to buttress such conclusion." more ›

Madonna Constantine, the Columbia Teachers College professor whose office door had a noose hanging on it, was suspended indefinitely for committing plagiarism. The NY Times characterizes the move as a firing, noting a letter from Teachers College says, "We are terminating Madonna Constantine’s employment with Teachers College for cause, subject to a hearing before a faculty committee. In the interim Professor Constantine is suspended, effective immediately.” more ›

The Columbia University community is currently divided over the controversy involving a professor's possible plagiarism, which has escalated to racial politics. more ›

The Columbia Teachers College professor who was in the news last year when a noose was found on her office door angrily denied she plagiarized others' work. Madonna Constantine, who the Teachers College sanctioned after a year-and-a-half investigation, will appeal the charges. more ›

After a year-plus long investigation, Columbia Teachers College has sanctioned a professor for plagiarism. And the professor happens to be Madonna Constantine, the professor who found a noose on her office door last fall. more ›

Today is a citywide "Day Out Against Hate." City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Reverend Al Sharpton have spearheaded the event, which was prompted by a number of disturbing hate crime incidents, from swastikas in Brooklyn Heights to a noose found at the Columbia University campus. The Politicker was at one of the events this morning, where Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz "suggested, rather strongly, that city public school students be required to make... more ›

The person who hung a noose on the doorknob of a professor at Columbia's Teachers College the other week seems to have been a catalyst for NY metro idiots, who have been been copy-cating or otherwise emulating public displays of hateful symbols. Most recently, Parks Dept. employees were appalled to find 10" nooses wrapped around the necks of their clothes when they opened their work lockers in Queens Saturday morning. more ›

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a child was shot on East 98th St. and Lott Ave. in Brooklyn, an abduction on Exterior and East 138th Sts. in the Bronx, and there was a bank robbery on 8th Ave. and 52nd St. in Manhattan. Local politicians want to make the public display of a noose a felony crime after the incident when someone attached one to the office door of a professor at Columbia Teachers... more ›

As the NYPD Hate Crimes unit, as well as the FBI and Justice Department, investigates the noose found outside a Columbia professor's office, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly commented about the school's cooperation. Apparently the school only turned over surveillance videos after the NYPD provided a subpoena - three days after the noose was found on Teachers College Professor Madonna Constatine's office door knob. more ›

Yesterday morning, a swastika and a caricature of a yarmulke-wearing man were found in a building at Columbia University. This is the second hate crime in as many days found at the school's campus - a noose was found on the door of a Teachers College professor earlier this week. more ›

Faculty and students are reeling after a noose was found on the door of a black professor's office at Columbia University's Teachers College yesterday. The NYPD's Hate Crime task force is investigating the incident and the professor has been identified in the media as Professor Madonna Constantine, whose interests are listed as "Cultural competence in counseling, training, and supervision. Mental health issues of people of color in the United States and immigrants. Vocational issues of adolescents and college students of color." more ›

investigation by the Hate Crimes Task Force. more ›

Parents and critics are railing against various research projects at schools, studies which were approved by the Department of Education. While children are included in the studies with parental consent, the Post reports that there are "'modest cash payments' to parents and teachers and gift certificates for kids," leading one parent to say, "We have a laboratory of guinea pigs. The Department of Education markets our kids like they're a piece of meat." more ›

New York City lost an important philanthropist Thursday morning in an apparent suicide . Arthur Zankel, 73, a former Citigroup board member and vice chairman of Carnegie Hall, jumped from a ninth-floor stairwell window into an inner courtyard of his Fifth Ave. apartment building. He was discovered later that day and taken to New York-Presbyterian. He had not left a note. more ›