… when someone running a secondary school or a university turns out to be a plagiarist. These people spend a lot of time pontificating to their students about honesty, academic integrity and hard work, and when they are found out, it makes their students – and their students’ families – look like dupes.
As Karen Francisco reports in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
Gwendolyn Griffith Adell is a member of the Indiana State Board of Education and administrator of a Gary charter school singled out for distinction by Gov. Mitch Daniels. She also stands accused of plagiarizing her doctoral dissertation.
Purdue University officials have confirmed they are reviewing the allegations.
Adell’s response so far is the classic I’ve just been hit with this response: Bullshit! I’m getting me a lawyer!
Once she calms down and realizes she’s been caught, she will probably go through many of the same stages most people – from the high and mighty German defense minister on down – go through:
She’ll admit there might have been one or two inadvertent lapses on her part.
She’ll ask her university for permission to correct the dissertation. This will be denied.
She’ll say she was busy having five children, running for political office, caring for her sick aunt.
She’ll say there’s a political conspiracy to get rid of her because she’s an outspoken critic of the establishment.
She’ll say her plagiarism occurred long ago and has nothing to do with what a great job she does. Judge her by her current work.
In her resignation speech, she will portray herself as a religious martyr.
May 1st, 2011 at 11:41AM
The 5 stages of plagiarism denial. I like it. I’m going to us this from now on. Maybe even put it in a book or article. Don’t expect any attribution though. It’s more poetic that way.
May 1st, 2011 at 12:24PM
It’s all yours, yequalsx.
May 1st, 2011 at 12:32PM
UD, some friendly advice. It might be a good idea to put some qualifiers in the post so that it doesn’t appear that you’ve already accepted the allegations. At this point she’s only been accused.
May 1st, 2011 at 1:30PM
I’ve looked at the side-by-side texts, AYY – and I believe she has plagiarized.
June 9th, 2011 at 1:28PM
You are right; she plagiarized freely. Copied research data and results make this the worse case I have seen. I wonder if this is Purdue’s one and only case of research fraud. I wonder how the fraud was funded. I wondder why four professors approved a dissertation without reading it. I wonder how many advantages she has enjoyed since declaring herself to be a doctor. I wonder how many real doctors have been passed over in favor of her self proclaimed qualifications.