Dr. Heidi Anderson
UMES President Dr. Heidi Anderson, who is Black, and former professor Donna Satterlee, who is white, are engaged in dueling lawsuits involving allegations of plagiarism, defamation, and racial discrimination. The case is scheduled for its first court appearance next week, according to The Washington Post.
The controversy began when Satterlee publicly accused Anderson of plagiarizing portions of her 1986 doctoral dissertation from Purdue University. Anderson maintains her innocence and has requested a formal investigation from the University System of Maryland chancellor to clear her name.
Satterlee departed UMES under contentious circumstances in December 2024 and filed a wrongful termination lawsuit this summer. She claims she was illegally forced out because of her race and faced retaliation for exposing corruption at the historically Black institution. On October 15, she appeared on the conservative network Newsmax, where she accused Anderson of "reverse discrimination," called the university president a "scam artist," and repeated her plagiarism allegations, The Post reported.
Anderson filed a $1 million defamation suit against Satterlee on October 24, after a faculty member expressed during a meeting that the escalating allegations felt like an attack on the entire university community. Anderson argues that citation standards differed in the 1980s and insists she committed no academic misconduct.
"I stayed quiet for as long as I could," Anderson told The Post. "There's no plagiarism here. It's an attack on me and my character and all of us at the university. I needed to take a stand."
Anderson joins a growing list of Black university leaders who have faced plagiarism accusations in recent years, including former Harvard President Dr. Claudine Gay and leaders at other institutions. Since the allegations surfaced, Anderson reports losing a speaking engagement and receiving racist messages.
The controversy unfolds against a broader backdrop of tensions in American higher education, as the Trump administration pushes to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs it characterizes as discriminatory.
