Bahman Baktiari, a tenured political scientist and director of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah, has been fired after a faculty committee determined he had committed plagiarism, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Mr. Baktiari (whose name also appears in print as “Bakhtiari”) admitted having made “mistakes” but denied intentionally copying from other sources without proper attribution. The committee recommended a public reprimand, but Utah’s interim president, A. Lorris Betz, decided that dismissal was “the only appropriate sanction.”
Mr. Baktiari was hired in 2009 to rebuild the center after a turbulent period in its history. He had been on administrative leave since February.