海角大神

The first thing Prof. Prudence Carter says she would do if she met college student Tiffany Martinez is 鈥済ive her a big hug.鈥�

That鈥檚 because Prof. Carter, an African American woman who has scaled to the top of the academic ladder, says she has felt the same sting of racial discrimination that Ms. Martinez says was behind a professor鈥檚 recent accusation that she committed plagiarism.

For Carter, today a professor at Stanford University, the accusation came from a professor in her PhD program at Columbia University in the 1990s. She says he wouldn鈥檛 let her take an exemption exam for a statistics class she was overqualified for, while an overseas student, from Israel, was allowed to take it simply by asking. Eventually, Carter says, another professor stepped in and allowed her to take the exam, which she passed with flying colors.

In Martinez鈥檚 case, her professor at Boston鈥檚 Suffolk University handed back a paper without a聽grade, only the words: 鈥渘eeds work.鈥� In a detailing the event that went viral, Martinez showed a photo of her paper where the professor had circled the word 鈥淗ence鈥� and written next to it, 鈥淭his is not your word.鈥�

Martinez, a participant in a federal fellowship that prepares undergraduates for doctoral work, describes herself as an 鈥渁spiring professor鈥� who has consistently made the dean鈥檚 list and will graduate next spring. She said she was humiliated in front of the class when the professor handed her the paper and said, 鈥淭his is not your language.鈥�

In an interview, acting Suffolk president Marisa Kelly agreed with Carter that such incidents of discrimination have long been widespread on college campuses. The problem, she and others say, is the difficulty of quantifying such examples, but that does not diminish the urgent need to help college staff better understand the increasingly diverse student populations they serve.

Carter acknowledges plagiarism is an issue on college campuses, but says an allegation should never be handled as it was in this instance.

鈥淲e read these stories, they go viral, and they feel like they're anecdotal, but they鈥檙e not,鈥� says Carter, a professor of education and sociology whose work has focused on equal opportunity in education. 鈥淭o get to this point where she's been empowered through the McNair Program [the federal fellowship] and others, and then to have a teacher presume you wouldn't know how to use 'hence' in a sentence is just painful.鈥�

In her blog, Martinez explained how she felt after the incident.

鈥淭heir blue pen was the catalyst that opened an ocean of self-doubt that I worked so hard to destroy,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淚n front of my peers, I was criticized by a person who had the academic position I aimed to acquire.鈥�

Martinez has received a flood of support. Carter鈥檚 kind words for Martinez were echoed by a historian, Dr. Yesenia Barragan, a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College who says she also has experienced academic racial discrimination. In a BBC interview, Dr. Barragan told Martinez: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not alone, we鈥檙e so proud of you, we love you, we鈥檝e got your back.鈥�

Suffolk鈥檚 President Kelly says the incident with Martinez gave her a greater sense of urgency. 聽聽

Since last year, Kelly says her university has held a range of events aimed at increasing understanding and respect among students and faculty. At some, both groups shared stories in which the words of a professor or student cut deep.

鈥淪tudents are very different than they were 20 years ago, [and from] a much broader range of experiences and backgrounds,鈥� she says. She adds that, in the wake of Martinez鈥檚 experience, 聽the college is finalizing plans to run campus-wide training for faculty in recognizing 鈥渕icro-aggressions," casual exchanges or slights that, intentionally or unintentionally, direct hostility toward minorities.

Still, for Carter, such training programs are not likely to generate the kind of shift required to stamp out discrimination in academia.

鈥淲hat our society needs is actually more of a critical mass of different kinds of students and teachers in these universities so that folks like this professor can be exposed and would be compelled and motivated to interact more," she says.

Federal data back up Carter鈥檚 claims. A of National Center for Education Statistics figures shows that while the number of African Americans awarded PhDs between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010 grew by 43 percent, the number of black faculty at public universities increased only 1.3 percent over the same time.聽

Asked what Carter would do after giving Martinez a hug, she鈥檚 affirmative: 鈥淚'd definitely want to encourage her not to give up.鈥�