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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Poshard Punctured

It was a lose-lose proposition from the start for the education department at Southern Illinois University, and UD's not surprised to read that they've said they won't rubber-stamp President Poshard's extensively plagiarized dissertation:



"The academic department that Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard asked to review his doctoral thesis has declined to do it.

Under attack for allegedly plagiarizing parts of his 1984 thesis, Poshard last week asked the university's department of higher education and administration, which awarded his PhD, to review the work and recommend action. As president, Poshard now oversees that department.

"The department has concluded that a committee with broader academic representation would be more appropriate for this review," SIU spokesman Dave Gross said in a statement, noting that the decision leaves the review process unresolved.

The department's chair, Brad Colwell, did not respond to requests for comment.

Poshard has maintained that any mistakes in his thesis were 'unintentional.'"


If they'd reviewed the thing honestly, they'd have publicized to the world the lax standards in their department and in ed schools generally. If they said it looked okay to them, they'd... accomplish exactly the same thing. If they said they couldn't make a determination, they'd ... you get the idea.

This is very bad news for Poshard, who may find himself in the undignified position of passing his dissertation off to one education department and then another, in search of someone willing to handle the damaged goods.

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Update: Mike Davidson of Profane sends me some local accounts, including an article that quotes a faculty member:

Rob Ware, a philosophy professor on the Edwardsville campus, said it was appropriate for the department to refuse to review the paper. SIU would come to a standstill if it reconsidered all cases of plagiarism from the past, so Poshard should not be afforded any special treatment in this case, he said.

Besides, Ware said, this appears to be a pretty clear case of plagiarism. He noted that he has not seen any denials of the allegations which first surfaced last week.

"I think that what should have happened already several days ago is that President Poshard should have presented his resignation," Ware said. "He is dragging the university’s reputation through the mud."
Posted at: 9/05/2007 11:40:00 PM