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Posted on 05/28/2025 4:52:27 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Musician and activist Evelyn Harris returned her honorary degree from Smith College after it was revealed that she plagiarized much of her commencement ceremony speech.
According to Smith College president Sarah Willie-LeBreton, Harris “borrowed much of her speech” without “typical attribution” and decided to give up her degree.
“Ms. Harris was forthcoming about her choices while also acknowledging that she sought to infuse the words of others with her own emotional valence,” Willie-LeBreton said in a statement. “With appreciation for the requirement of academic integrity so central to the values of Smith, Ms. Harris has chosen to relinquish her honorary degree.”
“I appreciate those who brought the dissonance of this moment to our attention and am very grateful for the graciousness of Evelyn Harris’s decision,” Willie-LeBreton wrote.
Two of Harris’ bandmates in the cover band Young@Heart defended her actions in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, claiming that “plagiarism works a little differently for us.”
“We sing lyrics and play music written by others without explicitly crediting them from the stage, without asking their permission, but often getting the original artist’s enthusiastic response when they eventually hear our version,” Bob Cilman and Julia van IJken wrote. “We imagine Evelyn may have been doing something similar in her speech and was honoring the words of others.”
Cilman and Julia van IJken accuse Smith College of attempting to humiliate Harris, as does another of Harris’ acquaintances and Smith College alumna.
“I personally know Evelyn not only submitted her speech for approval to Smith College weeks in advance and received an edited version back from them in tacit and overt approval for her to give that speech,” Tolley M. Jones wrote in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
“Smith College hastily, with a singular goal toward shuffling unwanted negative publicity away from itself, chose to deliberately humiliate...”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailywire.com ...
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should’ve just use chatgpt.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”
——Oscar Wilde.
All of us at Young@Heart were so proud to hear that Evelyn Harris, one of our newest and youngest singers, was to receive an honorary degree at Smith College this spring. She has been such a great addition to our group, and such an inspiration to all of us — as she has been to many others. We were saddened by the way Smith College has chosen to humiliate Evelyn in public by accusing her of plagiarizing parts of her acceptance speech. Evelyn has informed us that her speech was submitted to Smith College in early May, and was edited by them for length. Surely the question of plagiarism could have been brought to her attention at that point, avoiding the drama and spectacle that has unfolded now?Evelyn is a phenomenal interpretive musician and great performer. Young@Heart is essentially a cover band. Plagiarism works a little differently for us. We sing lyrics and play music written by others without explicitly crediting them from the stage, without asking their permission, but often getting the original artist’s enthusiastic response when they eventually hear our version. We imagine Evelyn may have been doing something similar in her speech and was honoring the words of others. It’s hard to know, because Smith chose to bring this to the public and humiliate Evelyn with very little explanation. We applaud the president of Smith College for recognizing the greatness in our community, but we think the way this was handled could hardly be considered neighborly. Bob Cilman and Julia van IJken, co-directors of Young@Heart
Bold added, corresponding to quote in the original story.
Got kind of a granny Medusa thing going on there.
And....
“Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery”
——Nelson DeMille.
Hope that isn’t really a trend.
We have enough trouble averting our eyes from the View and Maxine Waters.
But that speech sucked.
Is that a dude??
And stamp collecting is the sincerest form of philately.
More like libido suppresant.
yes
I do love that this response is from Steely Tom. Thanks!
President LeBreton is under the impression that she gets paid by the word. What a pedantic, overwrought mess of a statement.
CC
That’s the cause of ED right there!
So plagiarism is like being a cover band?
Just wait till Evelyn finds out that her method of flirting with the drivers of passing cars is copyrighted!
Ya know, just saying, they do have better treatments for leprosy today
“Without credit or acknowledge on stage “ ..
So, this group doesn’t pay for the stolen lyrics and melodies that they play for their money either?
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