Jason Arday dead

[ThisWiseRobin]

Just putting this out there, but just heared.A sad end to a whole sorry mess.

Oh, so let's look for proof now. Who looked for proof when he claimed all of those fantastical feats? Nobody. Because he was useful to the University as a shining example of their virtue in the age of DEI. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on.

Are you accusing the students of lying? Have you got any reason to doubt the veracity of their claims?

"If JA was white, very, very few people would have given a shit."

If he'd been white he wouldn't have been over promoted the way he was. He seemed to have some need to exaggerate his achievements and obstacles he'd faced and for a long time any questioning of this had been successfully shut down due to his race.

Being put forward as a figurehead like he was can set someone up as a target and it was a role he was ill suited for - when the extent of his exxagerations were inevitably exposed.

Not sure I really believe that it is morally wrong because of those things. However it is morally wrong if you are going to leave them with a massive mess and public scrutiny you should be handling yourself. Doing the right thing by his family really wasn't his priority both in life and death it seems.

Had he been white and NT, he’d still be a lecturer at Roehampton. Or have been let go quietly when his nonsense got too much. Not promoted to the pinnacle of academia in an emperors new clothes pantomime.

I agree, he was targeted because he was black.

Had he been a white working class man the media and response would have been very different. Less rage. Less outrage. Less attention.

It would have been if Cambridge had properly handled this from
the outset. Concerns had been raised several times before and they were brushed aside or shut down. Image ahead of integrity.

Even at the start of this latest round, Cambridge could have handled this much better but they went on the attack instead.

A terrible end for this young man. I agree though it wasn’t just a case of plagiarism being discovered and exposed. It was so much more . The book he had coming out seemed to involve so many incredible feats and contradictions that contemporaries at school and people taking part in charity events he participated in etc, stated were untrue. Some claims are so bizarre such as completing a marathon with a broken leg swollen to twice its size (photos show him at the finishing line with legs of equal size). Exaggerated claims as to how much he raised for charity have been disputed, peers at school said he wasn’t mute. All this was bound to draw attention to him. There have been Walter Mitty-like characters who have ended up performing surgery with zero medical qualitications, who regardless of colour, who understandably got widespread coverage in the media . Same with some chap who pretended to be a top ranking army major . Colour definitely comes into this and to argue against that I think would be utterly disingenuous, but this guys past history and forthcoming book had the media totally running with the story, RIP Jason. He had to have felt there was no way through all this, which is bleak and awfuo to think about

Sure, but he was targeted for promotion and feting for being black and neurodiverse long before he was targeted for being a fraud.

I agree the black and autistic (if he was) angle also made it a much bigger fall. But I don’t think the schadenfreude was aimed specifically at black people but at the ridiculous emperor’s courtiers at Cambridge and all the other supposedly elite institutions who have shoveled obvious nonsense at us for decades (and especially the past decade) while crying -ist or -phobe at anyone who doesn’t play along.

They should be discussed becuase you are right that they are important issues.

It clearly needs something different though. It has demonstrably failed to play the role the public thinks it exists for. At least in the humanities and social sciences.

A reckoning has come to all sorts of institutions over the centuries. Why not this one?

The schadenfreude at the expense of Cambridge was grand. I'm a big fan of schadenfreude, it's fun, it's free and there's a sense of justice that comes with it.😁

The problem is the obvious racist targeting. Had JA been a white working class, possibly autistic lad, who fooled the esteemed Dons of Cambridge, this would have been a different story altogether.

The BTL and SM comments would have been very different.

Very sad ending - condolences to his friends and family.

I find it very distasteful the same people with their agenda, who helped create a problem which manifested in this situation, are now turning his death into a Caroline Flack situation.

irrespective of his death, I hope people do not lose sight that there were some serious allegations being made and points the finger at academia and other institutions using certain people that tick certain boxes as a tool for their own nefarious purposes.

No doubt this unfortunate death will be framed to be racial.

I didn't know about the Simon & Schuster book deal. I guess that was an extra layer of worry for Arday on top of all the other recent humiliation. His poor children and loved ones, my heart goes out to them all.

People lie all the time for a myriad of reasons. The claims apparently made by certain students are serious and not something to accept without investigation and supporting evidence. I’d have thought that was obvious. I’m not saying they’re necessarily lying, but we shouldn’t be accepting allegations as facts until they are established as such.

But the facts are that several students complained about his teaching, his lectures and his marking right?

He was a liar and a fantasist that was encouraged by an institution and even lauded by it without a shred of research being done by them to back up his stories. Then when it (inevitably) all comes crashing down obviously wasn’t supported then. When he really needed it. The witch hunt absolutely was too far- he was hounded more than someone who has actually broken the law. Lots of questions should be asked and thoughts are with his family. I hope they are at least being supported

poor bloke and his family.

Cambridge and its pathetic wokism and virtue signallling promoted this man above where he should be and fed him a story.

I don’t think that’s established as fact. There was a specific historical complaint from a former student at the University of Roehampton who claimed he accused her of "white privilege" when she questioned a grade. None of us know the actual facts around what happened. Jesus College confirmed they received no complaints from students about Arday. But it’s not unusual for students to complain about academics - it happens all the time for lots of reasons. So I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised if there had been complaints. Usually you’d wait for complaints to be investigated before coming to any sort of judgement.

I think the public don’t believe a white working class man could have been able to put himself in that position which is part of the backlash.

I’ve very much against going after individuals when the main issue is with an organisation in this case Cambridge and also John Moore’s. If it’s a wider issue as has been argued then harassing an individual will do nothing to help.

I’m sorry he’s dead. I think he did deserve some criticism as lies do sometimes have consequences but it shouldn’t have ended like this.

Very sorry for his death though not surprised with all the hounding he got, would have broken a strong person never mind a clearly vulnerable man and the public Daily mail reform type hounding / hounding by private school Oxbridge rejects would not have happened if it had been a white, non autistic person at anywhere other than Oxbridge. Awful that people are continuing to make unpleasant comments on this thread and the others and have zero empathy for his wife and family.

The Guardian were all over this story too, appreciate that makes posters uncomfortable but it’s true.

JA claimed to be autistic. I’m not sure why you would assume that means it’s true.

The fact that you feel qualified to do so is quite telling. Scrutiny implies a knowledge and understanding of both content and context - there is no place for a partly informed public fed daily by sensationalist DM articles to determine whether complex academic research is being conducted properly. Credible scrutiny must be informed, evidence-based, and undertaken by people with the relevant expertise.

I am not in this discipline or that specific university, I am no ND or EDI expert, so i stay in my lane and within the boundaries of what i am qualified to speak about: i express an opinion on the matter of what constitutes plagiarism or not within doctoral work, and whether the behaviour do or do not exceed other much less prominent cases.

There is a place for informed scrutiny and accountability. There is no place for that so called scrutiny you are desiring when sensational media make a spectacle of someone s very sad professional demise. It was not proportionate. Articles did not flag the societal implications of dodgy research (and downstream policies) you allude to in your post. That would have made for very dull front pages.

Public interest should not be confused with public expertise, and media attention should not be mistaken for due process.

Horribly sad for his family and I can’t imagine how it would feel for anyone to get to a point where they take their own life.

He made some terrible professional mistakes but he resigned and that should have been the end of it but the relentless hounding and trolling every day has been awful. I’ll be honest I had no idea who he was and when I started seeing his name everywhere I assumed he’d done something truly heinous, such was the nature of the press coverage.

Let’s not forget that he didn’t physically harm anyone & his actions will have had no effect on pretty much everyone who drove him to a place that he felt he had no other option than to take his own life.