… low.

Way, way, low.

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(Further thoughts from Philip N. Baker, dean of medicine, University of Alberta.)

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UD thanks Ian.

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Update: Alberta lets its hair hang even lower:

Students have now been asked to not comment publicly as the school tries to limit the fallout of what was supposed to be a celebration.

Uh, let me say a couple of things about this growing-by-the-second story:

1. It’s totally scandalous that a cynical medical school dean would palm off someone else’s words on his students. The contempt it expresses for the students is immense.

2. The behavior totally plays into the already ethically-challenged realm of academic writing in medicine, with its guest authors and ghost authors and all the rest. Great message to send to your graduates – Go out there and download other people’s work.

3. Not comment publicly? Exsqueeze me? I mean, they’ve graduated anyway – they can do what they like, having been sent out into the world by Dean Download. And even if they were still students — What sort of university tries to keep its students from speaking?

4. Answer: An embarrassed university. Fine, yes, it’s embarrassing. The response is not to hush it up but to admit that it happened, that you’re embarrassed, and that you’re looking into sanctions. At the very least it seems obvious to UD that a person who can’t write and deliver a short graduation address should not be a dean. Let’s not even talk about the moral sleaze here.

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Calls for his resignation have begun. This seems to me a very good idea.

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All together now:

One attendee said his brother located the speech on The New Yorker website and was following along on his iPhone as Baker was reciting it.

Talk about the gotcha media! Plagiarist Alert: Soon your audience will be reciting your speech along with you in real time, reading it off their phones.