Posted on 03/13/2005 11:54:55 PM PST by ajolympian2004
By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News March 14, 2005
Ward Churchill says he didn't write the essay at the center of plagiarism allegations against him by a Canadian professor.
University of Colorado regents last week were set to offer Churchill a buyout when they received a 1997 internal report by Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, detailing the accusations.
Churchill says the essay in question was a "collectively authored piece." He refused to name any authors of the essay, which appeared under the name Institute for Natural Progress in a 1992 book edited by Churchill's former wife.
The INP is a research organization that Churchill co-founded. In the contributors section of the book, it says Churchill "assumed the lead role in preparing" the essay.
Churchill declined a request for an interview about the issue, but in a series of e-mails with the Rocky Mountain News, he said he does not consider himself the writer of the piece.
"There were several people who worked on aspects of the INP piece, which was basically pasted together from the results," Churchill said.
"And it was (a) rather hurried affair, as I recall," he said, noting that it has been 13 years since the essay appeared.
But one expert in scholarly writing says the lead role in preparing an essay "is enough admission of ownership."
"There are two defenses he could claim, and neither one is valid," said Tim Dodd, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University. "He could say he was sloppy and not as conscious of sources or careful as he should have been. That's no defense.
"Secondly, he could say he collaborated with others and he didn't exercise due diligence when he let others compile information.
"But if he says he assumed the lead role, then he was responsible."
In 1991, Churchill edited a book of essays on Native North America, published in Copenhagen, Denmark. In it was Dalhousie University professor Fay G. Cohen's essay on Indian treaty fishing rights in the Northwest and Wisconsin.
The next year, Churchill's then- wife edited a book of essays that included the INP essay on the same topic. The INP essay is the only one that appears with no named author.
M. Anne Jaimes, Churchill's ex- wife, said in an interview that she recalls that Churchill worked on the fishing rights essay and "from what I recall he had a preliminary or pilot paper he worked off of." She said she could not recall the paper's source.
Charles Crosby, a spokesman for Dalhousie University, gave this account, based on conversations with Cohen:
Cohen had been asked to submit her essay for the 1992 book. But as that book was being planned, Cohen was finishing the editing process of the 1991 book with Churchill.
She wasn't comfortable with the way he had edited her original essay and contacted the Copenhagen publishers about her concerns.
At that point, Churchill called Cohen in the middle of the night and said "I'll get you for this," Crosby said. Cohen then withdrew permission to print her essay in the second book.
In his e-mail, Churchill said "On the matter of my supposedly 'threatening' her, I did no such thing."
(A report Saturday in the Rocky Mountain News incorrectly reported the circumstances of that phone call. A correction appears on page 2A.)
After the INP version of the fishing rights essay was printed, Cohen asked Dalhousie's legal counsel to review the two papers and provide an opinion. Dalhousie officials said their investigation substantiated Cohen's claims of plagiarism. The 1997 investigation didn't address the issue of the alleged threat.
Churchill, in his e-mails to the News, said that two of the endnotes in the INP essay "appear to have been taken verbatim" from Cohen's piece. Endnotes document sources and provide additional information.
Churchill said one of those endnotes cites another of Cohen's books, so it shouldn't be considered plagiarized. As for the other note: "That's a problem" Churchill wrote, adding in parentheses "for somebody."
But, he added, all Cohen needed to do was voice her complaint to the publisher and a correction would have been made "and she'd undoubtedly have received an apology as well."
But more is at issue than endnotes in comparing the two essays, said Dodd, who reviewed excerpts from each essay.
"I do see a pattern here of using language used before, and using ideas clearly developed before without acknowledging or properly citing the source," he said.
Borrowing and expanding on ideas is nothing new in academic publishing. But Cohen's work should have been cited as a major influence on the second essay, Dodd said.
Cohen's essay is mentioned twice in endnotes of the second piece, but for specific quotes, not broad ranges of information or ideas.
The essay then goes on to cite almost all the same sources Cohen cites. In dozens of instances, it lists not only the same publications, but the same pages and with the same descriptions.
"If footnotes were the only problem, that's not really a place you're going to hang your hat," Dodd said. "But the fact that this language so closely parallels the other in structure and elucidation, the previous piece should have been credited more thoroughly."
It's nice to have that cleared up.
L
Wart is sure gettin' a lot of press, I guess it won't be too long that like Julius Rosenberg, everybody will know his name.
Dickhead floats in the miasma; works for me.
I'm officially Warded out. I couldn't care less what he does or what his bosses do.
Churchill saves his writing skills for shrill attacks on his fellow white men. These are the diatribes that earn him over 100K a year. It's good work, if you can get it.
I'm about Churchill'ed out as well quite frankly. The outcome Ward Churchill was not expecting is that he has become the poster child for reform in our colleges and universities across America. The issue of tenure, academic freedom and leftist wacko professors like Churchill is now on the front burner in the minds of parents and prospective students alike. This is a good thing in the long run.
It's a plague.
It seems that it's far too easy for fat, stupid white men to make a living bashing other white men.
The word FRAUD should accompany this 'things' name from now on whenever it appears on FR.
abso-tutely. Professor FRAUDS like this clown who are spreading their diseased-minds to your children will not be able to hide behind their tenured chairs -and good riddance.
Yes, Ward Churchill is small potatoes compared to Moore, who is all potatoes, sugar, grease, and starch. Moore doesn't even claim to be an Indian, but he does claim to be of working class heritage from Flint, Michigan, which he is not. So the pattern of lies and being a fraud is consistent here.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Yes. He's served his purpose--now he needs to be cast aside! :) I expect once this all simmers down we will next read about him in a tiny article on page 28 that relates how he was carted to the local jail for trying to drunkenly grope a fellow faculty member, probably male, and he will quietly resign.
...and he'll be forked in prison...guaranteed ;)
ping!
bttt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.