Court rulings a mixed bag for UCF over pay-to-play Ph.D. scandal

A Judge recently ruled the University of Central Florida (UCF) had the legal authority to rescind a Ph.D. from a graduate accused of plagiarizing his dissertation in what became an embarrassing pay-to-play scandal for the school.

Meanwhile, another Judge upheld an arbitrator’s ruling ordering UCF to reinstate the professor who was the student’s adviser and ran the lab.

For the Orlando school, which is aspiring to be a prestigious research institution, the court rulings are part of the fallout at the UCF Institute for Simulation and Training.

UCF accused Irwin Hudson, who had completed his Ph.D. while he was a Department of Defense employee, of being in a quid pro quo scheme at the lab run by Lauren Reinerman-Jones. UCF believed Hudson brought in Army funds to the lab in exchange for getting his degree. UCF fired Reinerman-Jones in 2020 for academic misconduct, financial conflicts of interest and more. In 2022, UCF took away Hudson’s Ph.D.

The school’s findings of impropriety were “were very, very shocking or egregious” and “ended up resulting in the closure of the lab,” with “far-reaching ramifications,” UCF attorney Jason Vail said recently in court.

Both Hudson and Reinerman-Jones denied they did anything wrong and sued UCF.

“To be clear, the Court is making no determination regarding whether Hudson did or did not commit plagiarism. That question is best left to the academics who made it,” Circuit Judge Eric Netcher wrote in his order filed Dec. 19.

But Netcher ruled that UCF had the authority to revoke Hudson’s Ph.D. and Hudson’s due process hadn’t been violated.

“Hudson knew what he was being accused of and was given a chance to be heard on those issues,” the Judge wrote, denying Irwin’s request for his Ph.D. to get reinstated.

Hudson, who still refers to himself today as “Dr. Hudson,” said he is disappointed by the Judge’s ruling and plans to appeal.

“My fight is not just for my own vindication but for the protection of academic freedom and the assurance that other students or faculty members will not have to endure such an ordeal in the future. I remain hopeful that justice will ultimately prevail and that my name will be cleared,” said Hudson, who is Black and has accused UCF of unfairly treating minority faculty members.

Meanwhile, in Reinerman-Jones’ case, a dying arbitrator left behind a decision riddled with errors, UCF argued. Among the most glaring mistakes was that the arbitrator even got UCF’s name wrong, UCF said. It sought to throw out the award against the school, which found UCF had no just cause to fire Reinerman-Jones and should reinstate her and make her whole.

“From our perspective, the Arbitrator had some illness issues at the arbitration and once we completed the hearing, it seemed to manifest itself in a way, including with the award, which we believe on its face, I’ll say, nonsensical, haphazard,” Vail said.

Vail added, “We’re UCF, not ECF.”

The attorney for Reinerman-Jones argued the main point of Roger Abrams’ arbitration decision was correct.

Orange Circuit Court Judge Chad Alvaro denied UCF’s request to throw out Abrams’ original arbitration ruling.

“Frankly, I do understand why this might raise concerns, that’s why we strive for perfection in orders and awards and sometimes unfortunately still fall flat,” Alvaro said at the Nov. 19 court hearing, according to transcripts filed this month in the Orange Circuit Court.

“But the Arbitrator was also on this record an extremely experienced arbitrator of these sorts of matters and the award, while not perfect, is otherwise as the (Reinerman-Jones) puts it ‘cohesive and facially well reasoned,’ again, while not perfect.”

Abrams died last year at age 78. According to Northeastern University’s Law School, where he worked as a faculty member, the Harvard-educated lawyer had a long career in high-stakes arbitration. He was a salary arbitrator in Major League Baseball and oversaw disputes involving Disney World and the state of Florida, and was also a permanent arbitrator for the television, communications, electronics and coal industries.

UCF argued Abrams overstepped his power in his decision by saying UCF also needed to write a public apology letter to Reinerman-Jones. The school also pointed out Abrams made glaring errors, like key players’ names.

Another terminated UCF faculty member, Grace Teo — whose research was copied in Hudson’s dissertation — was referred to incorrectly as Dr. Eto 20 times in Abrams’ arbitration award, UCF said.

Other sections in Abrams’ arbitration award were copy and pasted twice or had contradictions, UCF argued.

Reinerman-Jones’ attorney, Thomas Pilacek, said UCF didn’t warn him when the school learned Abrams was sick and not taking new arbitration cases.

“Instead they choose to wait for the award without objecting to it and now they’re trying to take advantage of their own wrongdoing, and we don’t think that is anything that’s required by the arbitration code or permitted by the arbitration code,” Pilacek told the Judge.

UCF, which is closed for the holidays, did not respond to a request for comment Monday on the court rulings.