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 ...
“Plagiarism is the sincerest form of Flatulence!”
Anon...
That’s a man, baby!
She’s ugly both on the inside and outside.
Music venues in the USA are required to pay for ASCAP licenses if bands play cover songs. I would imagine that criminals and other “special” types do frequently circumvent that requirement.
Smith & Northampton, total Lesbocracies.
Looks like poster girl for the Left, to me.
Ping
“…while also acknowledging that she sought to infuse the words of others with her own emotional valence,”
This is an example of the plasticity of the demonrat mind and morals. She has turned stealing others words into some kind of virtue.
Superb commencement lesson for all.
> honoring the words of others
That’s a good way to put it. LOL
“> honoring the words of others
That’s a good way to put it. LOL”
Exactly. You honor the words of others by acknowledging that they said them.
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