After months of insisting it was not possible – or even legal – to share a redacted doctoral dissertation by controversial US politician Doug Mastriano, the University of New Brunswick suddenly made the document public in August, in a move that appeared to undermine the justifications used to keep it. secret in principle. Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, emerged there as an early opponent of mask and vaccine mandates to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump. A senator, author and retired Army colonel, Mastriano earned a doctorate in history from UNB in 2013 toward the end of his military career. Numerous attempts to access the thesis Mastriano wrote to earn his doctorate have, however, been rebuffed over the past two years. “The choice to embargo a dissertation is at the discretion of the author, not the institution,” UNB’s Heather Campbell wrote in May, declining CBC’s request for access to Mastriano’s dissertation. A statue of First World War hero Sgt. Alvin C. York stands at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn. UNB awarded a doctorate in history to Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in 2013 based on his research on York. (Mark Humphrey/Associated Press) He said an author’s reasons for not wanting the work shared “are not scrutinized” and that an embargo can last indefinitely under university rules. “It defaults to four years, but an author can request an extension,” he wrote. This is contrary to the policy of many North American universities, which regard scholarship as a public good to be shared, except in rare cases. For example, York University in Toronto states on its website that its policy is to allow a thesis embargo for a maximum of three years and only when it meets certain conditions and is agreed to be necessary by the student supervisor. “As a publicly funded institution, the University of York has an obligation to ensure that the research produced by its postgraduate students is available for the benefit of the public, particularly by making successfully defended theses and theses available through the libraries and and York University Archives.” states university policy.
“They really didn’t reveal anything”
However, UNB used its more restrictive policy to deny at least four separate requests since 2020 to see the thesis. Chris Rodkey, a Pennsylvania Democrat running to represent his local district in state elections this fall, made one of those requests. Rodkey, who himself has a Ph.D., was surprised in November 2020 when he could not find a record of Mastriano’s thesis in the UNB library system. That turned into shock when UNB responded to a formal written request for information by refusing to reveal even the title of Mastriano’s thesis. The University of New Brunswick rejected multiple requests to release Douglas Mastriano’s doctoral dissertation claiming it would violate his privacy rights, but then reversed itself without immediately explaining why in August. (University of New Brunswick) “Since this request seeks the personal information of a third party’s educational history, we are obligated to protect the privacy of that individual,” UNB’s Sarah DeVarenne wrote in a letter responding to Rodkey’s request. “They didn’t confirm or deny anything and really didn’t reveal anything,” Rodkey said in an interview this week. “I thought it was strange that they wouldn’t comment or give me any information at all.” Mastriano presided over hearings in Pennsylvania in November 2020 that gave Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani a forum to allege widespread fraud in Joe Biden’s election victory in that state. He also attended the pro-Trump rally in Washington on January 6, 2021, which ended in a deadly riot. “The one guy who stood up for election integrity and supported me from the beginning is Doug Mastrianio,” reads an endorsement from Donald Trump on Mastriano’s social media platforms. CBC News has not received a response from Mastriano’s campaign for comment. Mastriano banned journalists from attending his events, attracting national media attention in the US because of it.
The PhD has been used to counter criticism
Mastriano cites his UNB PhD in his campaign materials, and the thesis has been used to counter criticism of some of his controversial statements and actions during the campaign, such as an old photo showing him at an event wearing as a federal soldier. “The media MELTED that Mastriano apparently once impersonated a Civil War historical figure,” campaign legal counsel Jenna Ellis tweeted in response to this controversy. “He has a PhD in HISTORY.” The media MELTED that Mastriano apparently once posed as a Civil War historical figure for a photo. And? He has a PhD in HISTORY. The left wants to erase history. The —@JennaEllisEsq As Mastriano’s profile grew, various media outlets and other parties sought access to his much-criticized thesis about World War I hero Sgt. Alvin C. York but UNB insisted its policies and privacy laws prohibited it In addition to Rodkey and the CBC, UNB also rejected requests for Mastriano’s thesis from the Associated Press and from University of Oklahoma graduate student James Gregory, who has become an outspoken critic of mistakes in Mastriano’s historical research. “I don’t care about Mastriano’s politics. I live in Oklahoma,” Gregory said in an interview. “This had nothing to do with politics. This was just due diligence in the field of being a historian.”
List of errors given to the university
UNB told Gregory in 2021 that Mastriano’s thesis on Sgt. York was largely reprinted as a commercially available book in 2014. Based on this information, Gregory gave the university a list of errors to check in Mastriano’s thesis. I find it suspicious, to say the least, that they would even allow that. – Graduate student James Gregory The university again did not allow him to see the paper, but it launched a review that resulted in 21 revisions to Mastriano’s original thesis appended to a “correction” in June 2021. This was not publicly known at the time, however, due to the ongoing embargo on the work imposed by the university. Chris Rodkey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, was shocked that UNB denied access to even the title of Douglas Mastriano’s Ph.D. (Chris Rodkey/Twitter) Gregory wonders if UNB kept Mastriano’s dissertation under wraps to protect privacy rights or to spare him the embarrassment of mistakes he failed to spot and then rewarded with a degree. “They were going to bury it back under embargo, where no one could check it again,” Grigoris said, describing revisions that were made and then also embargoed. “I find it suspicious, to say the least, that they would even allow that.” Further questions about whether Mastriano’s privacy rights were really behind the embargo arose again in August, when the university suddenly reversed course and released the thesis after nine years of secrecy, apparently without Mastriano’s permission. The Associated Press reported last week that Drew Redall, UNB’s dean of graduate studies, informed Mastriano of the embargo lifting and did so without ever hearing back from the candidate. Rendall did not immediately respond to a request for an interview about whether the end of the embargo suggests that UNB’s previous claims — that the decision rested solely with Mastriano — were untrue. A request for comment from Mastriano’s office about whether he agreed to end the embargo also went unanswered. Gregory said that based on the now-public document and the 21 revisions made as a result of his 2021 complaint about suspected errors in the paper, he is preparing a second, longer challenge to Mastriano’s research and UNB’s award of a doctorate based on it.
