Michael Hand v. William H. Matchett Michael Zimmerman William B. Conroy James E. Halligan New Mexico State University

BARRETT, Senior Circuit Judge.

Defendants-appellants, who are faculty members and officials of New Mexico State University (NMSU), appeal from a summary judgment entered in favor of Plaintiff-appellee Michael Hand. The primary issue on appeal concerns whether NMSU’s revocation of Hand’s Ph.D. was valid under New Mexico statute. The revocation followed an investigation which revealed that certain portions of his dissertation contained plagiarized material. Because we agree with the district court that Defendants acted outside New Mexico law when they revoked the degree, we affirm. 1

Facts

NMSU is…