Cambridge chancellor condemns media frenzy after Black professor’s death

MANCHESTER, England (CN) — The University of Cambridge’s chancellor on Monday condemned what he called a “racist feeding frenzy” surrounding former professor Jason Arday, as scrutiny intensifies over the media coverage that preceded his death.Chris Smith, the university’s chancellor, spoke publicly for the first time since Arday, 41, was found dead at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday.Smith said academic institutions should investigate credible concerns about an academic’s work while rejecting racial hostility toward the person at the center of them.“I do believe it is possible to hold to two principles at the same time: to believe in the importance of academic integrity, and where criticisms of plagiarism arise, about any academic, whoever they are, ensure that they are rigorously investigated. And also to refuse to join in a racist feeding frenzy over a particular academic,” he said.The comments come amid a widening debate in the U.K. over whether coverage of controversies surrounding Arday’s academic credentials and personal achievements went beyond legitimate public interest.Investigation and resignationArday became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor when he was appointed in 2023 at age 37. The appointment was celebrated as a milestone for racial representation in British higher education.According to a biography published by Cambridge, Arday was diagnosed with autism at age 3, did not speak until age 11 and was illiterate until 18.He resigned from his position at Cambridge on Aug. 5 after weeks of scrutiny over accusations of plagiarism and questions about claims he had made about his achievements.He denied the claims and said his resignation should not “be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me.”Police said Arday’s death was unexpected but was not believed to be suspicious. His cause of death has not been publicly disclosed.His family said they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”“The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone,” the family said.Cambridge had initially said accusations concerning his doctoral thesis and some journal articles had already been investigated by Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded him his doctorate in 2015, and by the journals involved.Those investigations did not find that he had plagiarized.On the same day he resigned, the university announced an independent investigation into Arday’s appointment and his academic record.A former colleague and friend, Simon Baron-Cohen, said Cambridge should allow its investigation into Arday’s appointment to proceed.“They have announced an investigation, and we should let that proceed,” he said. “We should see what we learn from it. This is the whole purpose of investigations.”Baron-Cohen, director of Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre, said Arday had faced racist abuse and had become a “lightning rod for a culture war” over diversity, equity and inclusion.Media scrutinyThe accusations were brought into wider public view in July by Nathan Cofnas, a former Cambridge academic who describes himself as a “race realist.”Cofnas left Cambridge in 2024 after publishing a blog post on race and intelligence, arguing “race differences” in intelligence were real and only 0.7% of Harvard students would be Black under a colorblind system.In a July 21 post, Cofnas published examples of what he said were passages in Arday’s 2015 doctoral thesis that closely resembled material from another scholar’s dissertation.Other investigations followed by national newspapers, examining Arday’s publications and claims about his personal achievements.The Times reported last week that it had found inconsistencies in data in some of his research, including demographic figures and repeated quotations. Arday denied wrongdoing and said any problems could be explained by errors.Media analysis organization NewsCord said 249 articles about Arday were published in the 22 days before his death, with 188 appearing in the final nine days after his resignation.Steven Barnett, a professor of communications at the University of Westminster who specializes in journalism, press ethics and media regulation, said the volume and timing of the coverage went beyond legitimate reporting.“The coverage of Jason Arday went way beyond legitimate scrutiny: 249 articles in the space of 22 days, including 188 after he had resigned and asked to be left alone, is persecution, not investigation,” Barnett said.Barnett said the coverage was driven by the country’s largest right-wing publishers, which he describes as “a powerful right-wing agenda-setting combination of publishers seeking to discredit DEI.”He said they “hounded professor Arday in pursuit of their agenda, and were wholly uninterested in him as a flawed human being.”Barnett pointed to other plagiarism cases involving academics at Cambridge that he said received little or no comparable coverage.“Lord Smith is correct to call this a racist frenzy,” Barnett said. “There have been several incidents of plagiarism at Cambridge — including one involving a professor passing off his students’ work as his own — with marginal if any coverage. They all involved white, middle aged men.”The debate also has echoes of previous cases involving intense press coverage of individuals who later died by suicide.Barnett cited the deaths of television presenter Caroline Flack in 2020 and teacher Lucy Meadows in 2013, saying the cases showed “something peculiarly toxic about elements of the British press, particularly on the right.”Barnett said Britain should strengthen its system of independent press accountability, arguing that reforms proposed after the phone-hacking scandal had not been fully implemented.“The British press needs to be held to the same principles of accountability as they insist should apply to every other industry,” he said, “including higher education.”The scale of the coverage has also drawn comment from people who knew Arday.Simon Woolley, principal of Homerton College at Cambridge and a former mentor to Arday, said the sociologist had told friends shortly before his death that he felt “hounded to death.”He added that Arday appeared to have lost about half his body weight and was “desperate beyond belief,” adding “he couldn’t see a way out.”Kehinde Andrews, a professor of Black studies at Birmingham City University and a prominent commentator on race, described the coverage in more forceful terms.“It was not ‘intense media scrutiny.’ It was a racist media lynch mob where the whole media joined in to make it impossible for him to see a way out,” Andrews said.Prime Minister Andy Burnham called Arday’s death a “tragedy on so many levels” on Saturday and urged the public not to rush to judgment.“It’s not a moment for any rushing to judgment. It’s a moment for reflection, I would say, reflecting on how things came to this,” Burnham said.James Cleverly, a senior Conservative lawmaker, said universities had promoted Arday because they wanted to showcase his age and ethnicity.Cleverly said universities had treated Arday as a “Black wunderkind” and that his exposure was “inevitable — a case of when, not if.”His comments have added a second line of criticism to the debate: whether universities themselves contributed to the situation by celebrating Arday as a symbol of racial progress before properly checking his credentials.Calls for inquiryThe Good Law Project, a British legal campaign group, has launched a petition calling on Burnham and the culture secretary to establish a public inquiry into the media coverage surrounding Arday.The petition, which has gathered around 90,000 signatures, says press harassment was a foreseeable cause of his death and argues that racism played a significant role in the coverage.It compares the attention Arday received with coverage of other public figures who faced questions about plagiarism or their credentials, arguing that those cases received less media attention because the subjects were white.The campaign is also calling for greater scrutiny of Britain’s system of press self-regulation.The university’s investigation into his appointment is expected to examine how he was hired and how concerns about his record were handled before and during his time at Cambridge.If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). VisitSpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources* for a list of additional resources.*Courthouse News reporter James Francis Whitehead is based in England.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads