Two members of a math department research project violated Central Michigan University’s research integrity policy, prompting the Board of Trustees on Tuesday to return $619,489 in grant money.

The Board voted to reimburse the National Science Foundation for “CONCEPT: CONnecting Content and Pedagogical Education of Pre-service Teachers,” which began in 2005 and was formed to improve the math department’s secondary education program.

Over the course of the project, two of the seven math department project investigators were named in a report which alleged that they copied and pasted uncited information as part of the research, said Steve Smith, director of public relations.

CMU hired two outside investigators to examine the research. They concluded that plagiarism had occurred.

“There was evidence of plagiarism in both the grant proposal, and evidence in the materials that were produced as a result of the research,” he said.

The names of the team members who violated the policy will not be identified, Smith said, citing CMU’s personnel policy.

He said the research money is being reimbursed because university officials determined it was the ethical thing to do.

Trustees said the money was being returned because the project could not be successfully completed with the remaining funds. The Board voted to return the money to ensure future grants from the NSF.

However, the Trustees did not disclose the reason for the return of the funds at their special meeting. Central Michigan Life learned of the details when Smith called late Thursday with the information.

CMU plans to pay back the grant money through other university funds, which are still being determined by Interim University President Kathy Wilbur, Interim Provost Gary Shapiro and Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services David Burdette.

‘Privacy issues involved’

When the Board of Trustees originally approved the grant in summer 2005, the award amount was set at $548,975, according to the 2005 agenda. Smith confirmed Friday that $770,119 is the total amount.

The remaining $150,630 that was not included had not been drawn from the grant, Smith said.

Money from the grant was mainly used to hire temporary faculty, who replaced the faculty involved with the research.

Seven members of the original grant included current math faculty members Douglas Lapp, Charles Vonder Embse, Dennis St. John, Lisa DeMeyer and Carl Lee.

Azita Manouchehri, now a professor at Ohio State University, and Ken Smith, now a professor at Sam Houston State University, taught at CMU and were members of the original research team.

Math faculty involved with the project did not return calls as of Sunday.

The NSF was notified of the situation after the university determined plagiarism may have occurred.

“There are privacy issues involved, so the amount of information we can release is very limited,” said Maria Zacharias, NSF public affairs specialist.

E-mail the author: Jake Bolitho