Back in the day, Southern Illinois University’s president Glenn Poshard was found to have plagiarized in sections of both his master’s and his PhD. He shed public tears, and the internal group of hacks assigned to exonerate him promptly did so. An SIU emerita professor summed it all up succinctly: I quote her in my headline.
Those wondering about the fate of Hobart and William Smith president Gregory Vincent can take heart. Tears will be shed, and we will be assured by an internal committee that innocent mistakes were made. There’s plenty of precedent for this. This is how it’s done.
March 29th, 2018 at 1:09PM
Umm. I just heard about this tonight (shortly before reading your post). But I’m in Rome. You’d think there would be some back channel emails, but I”ve received NOTHING. And a number of people have my non-hws email from past discussions.
I’m fascinated by the question of who sent the anonymous letter.
I’m sure you’re right, though. There will be a little wailing, some not-quite-gnashing of teeth, and this will pass. He certainly has the board’s confidence.
April 3rd, 2018 at 12:11PM
There is amazing radio silence on the faculty/staff list serve – especially since there was a faculty meeting yesterday. Was everyone satisfied with the statement by 2 board members? It was not distributed (nothing more than what you’ve already seen from the chair, Tom Bozzuto). There was supposed to be a motion on the floor of the faculty addressing (denouncing) procedure – the anonymity of the accusation.
Do I want to go back?
April 4th, 2018 at 6:05AM
This is the standard playbook, Michael. The only awkwardness that will have to be addressed is how a university can pass on plagiarism at the very top (if the allegations are true) when the institution severely punishes plagiarism among its students.