Posted on 10/12/2007 11:15:43 AM PDT by Froufrou
Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard has homework to do.
A committee of faculty leaders at SIU announced Thursday that the university's top official committed "inadvertent plagiarism'' in his doctoral dissertation, which he wrote as a student at SIU in 1984. The paper therefore needs to be corrected, but he will remain the university's top official and face no further repercussions.
The committee's recommendations were approved in a closed meeting Thursday of the university's board of trustees.
Poshard said he took "full responsibility'' for the mistakes and cried at one point during a news conference in which he read an apology to the university community.
The former Democratic gubernatorial nominee later said he feels "a sense of relief this is finally coming to a close. It has been difficult for my family and me. . . . This has been a blow to our name and our family, but more importantly to the university. That's what concerns me.''
That also concerns some of Poshard's critics, who said they were outraged by the decision.
"SIU has been deeply disgraced,'' said Robert Ware, a philosophy professor at the Edwardsville campus who along with 38 other faculty members supported a petition calling for an outside, independent review of the charges. "Damage was done to SIU today that will hurt us for years.''
University leaders repeatedly defended their decision not to refer the case to an outside panel, saying they had enough expertise on the committee.
The committee's report comes after allegations that Poshard plagiarized his dissertation on gifted children's education.
A committee of seven faculty leaders was appointed by the Carbondale chancellor -- who also works under Poshard -- and they met eight times over the past three weeks. They found nearly 40 instances of citation errors or other problems in the paper.
The committee found no specific style was required by the SIU Department of Higher Education, where he studied at the time. Instead, Poshard used an "informal style'' used by other graduate students then.
But there also were "many instances in the dissertation where the words of others are present in a continuous flow with student Poshard's own words, so that readers cannot distinguish between those sources,'' the report states. The instances of unquoted and uncited texts are "pervasive'' and "significant,'' it said.
In an interview with the committee, Poshard said he couldn't recall "hearing instruction on the meaning of plagiarism'' but simply thought it was intentionally stealing others' work. The committee found there was no definition of plagiarism in the graduate student handbook at the time.
Ware questioned relying on Poshard's word in this case, considering students Ware has caught plagiarizing almost always claim they did so inadvertently. Ware now wonders if he can hold those students to a higher standard than the president. If not, "We have told the entire country that we have no standards or abysmally low standards at SIU,'' he said.
But Poshard said it's simply a matter of being a more "humane university'' that seeks to be fair.
"We can't be a university that only decides things on the basis of our head,'' he said. "We also have a heart.''
That explains it all..............
Give him a break. After all, he cried.
if=of
I wonder what would happen if a certain unspecified female presidential candidate’s thesis was run through turnitn.com. I wonder further how current writing by powerful MSM “reporters” would similarly fare.
“In an interview with the committee, Poshard said he couldn’t recall “hearing instruction on the meaning of plagiarism’’ but simply thought it was intentionally stealing others’ work. The committee found there was no definition of plagiarism in the graduate student handbook at the time.”
The janitor’s wife never buys brooms or mops, either.
Glenn Poshard in some hot water.
Well, yes, he did cry and should get due credit for that. He also tipped his hat to the importance of feeeee-lings. So he gets another point.
But did he bite his lower lip? Did he say anything at all about the chil-run? Nope. That's why he's a disgrace to any liberal university and should go.
Uh, would you mind defining "mop"? I can't find it's definition in my FR handbook. Thanks!
So, a faculty memeber feels that his institution is “...deeply disgraced...”
Sorry, professor. If you’re part of a liberal arts faculty, you are discraced by definition. Your courses are largely jokes and students receiving your “degrees” are suckers who paid good money for bad indoctrination. Yup, I know that this all-inclusive statement is not correct. However, it appears that statistically, it is largely correct. Prof, suck it up and get a real degree in physics, chemistry, engineering, math...you know - those courses that actually require an IQ to pass. Then you can impart actual knowledge to humanity.
If the concept and rules of plagiarism is alien to a man by the time he’s in post-grad schooling... I’d think the real investigation should be in how he got into the program.
Did he earn his initial degree or did he copy off others then too?
BS... how can this university remotely claim authority to chastise and punish and expell students for plagerism when it let its own President off the hook for it?
Liberalism means no integrity and no respect. Alumni should shut off all funding to this university until this jackass is gone.
Obviously the trustees are not going to do anything.
~snorrfle~
I don’t care if he sobbed buckets, I have no patience for anyone who can’t keep their ‘op cits’ and ‘ibids’ straight!
I mean really, how much effort does it take?
Just a minute, I’m looking up ‘op cit’...
;o) But yeah, I’d check his other degrees, too.
I voted for Poshard...cause I knew what George Ryan was.
Good point. The academic rigor of his instructors and department advisors might also be a fruitful avenue of inquiry. I’m betting it would reveal a bunch of third-string bozos handing out degrees like crackerjack prizes.
Whether plagiarism was defined in the student’s guide or not is irrelevant. The dictionary is still a useful tool when one is unsure of a word’s definition/meaning.
“Give him a break. After all, he cried.”
He and George Voinobitch should get together!
“Inadvertant plagiarism” is akin to “smoking without inhaling”, or being an “unindicted co-conspirator”.
There is simply an air about them suggesting a less than entire probity. One would think the University would favor someone more ... dignified.
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