Friday, September 08, 2006

Campus plagiarism watch: Did Southern Ill. Univ. steal Texas A&M's long range plan?

Hey, if this is true, you can successfully argue that the problem of plagiarism is more widespread than originally thought.
From the Southern Illinoisan:

Southern Illinois University Carbondale has been accused of plagiarizing its plan to become a top 75 research university, "Southern at 150," in the nation's premier higher education publication.

A story that appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education today alleges the planning documents that directed more than 200 people in the SIUC community to craft Southern at 150 are nearly identical to a long-range plan crafted by Chancellor Walter Wendler's superior at Texas A&M University at College Station. Wendler came to SIUC from Texas A&M in 2001.

Documents showing the alleged plagiarism were given to the Chronicle by members of Alumni and Faculty Against Corruption at SIU, a group formed in support of an SIU-Edwardsville professor Chris Dussold, who was fired in 2004 for alleged plagiarism. The group has been using plagiarism detection software, pulling up evidence that others within the university system have plagiarized but not been dismissed, as Dussold was.

While SIU President Glenn Poshard has come to the defense of both Wendler and Edwardsville chancellor Vaughn Vandegrift over previous allegations the group has spotted, this time he has appointed a three-member panel to review the allegations and submit a written report back to him.

Side note to those reading from outside Illinois: Poshard was the Democratic nominee for Illinois governor in the 1998 election. He was narrowly defeated by some Republican named George H. Ryan.

It appears that Illinois native Ward Churchill is not involved in this alleged plagiarism case.

Technorati tags:

No comments: