Carbondale Bytelife

If you want to read the Blagojevich complaint yourself and see if you think President Poshard is "Individual C", here's the full complaint. Scroll down to thumbnail 37, paragraph 67 for the relevant conversation. Maybe I'm being charitable, but I don't see any indication that "Individual C" was involved in the illegal aspects of the Bloago administration.

Labels: crime, Glenn Poshard, Governor Blago, state government

It's the gift that keeps on giving. The new proposed plagiarism policy for SIUC is out now and the DE focuses on one particular part, the provision allowing the president's office to punish those who bring plagiarism charges deemed frivolous or malicious.

I find it amusing that this section follows one prohibiting retaliation against an individual who makes complaints or allegations of a violation of the plagiarism policy. Also, interestingly, the proposed policy ONLY applies to the Offices of the President and Chancellor. All other cases will be handled by the individual academic unit. You can read the entire 7 page draft here.


In a follow-up in today's DE, one of the principals in the plagiarism investigation, associate professor Gerald Nelms, commented that, under these guidelines, the allegations against President Poshard would have been considered worthy of investigation. However, Professor Nelms felt that his comments to the DE were taken out of context and he has written a very lengthy explanation of his reasoning in the article comments.

Labels: Glenn Poshard, plagiarism, siuc

President Poshard is not happy that someone is citing him as an example of how cases of inadvertent plagiarism should be handled. According to the student, who had her degree from Argosy University-Chicago stripped before the school allowed her to re-enroll and submit a new dissertation, since her plagiarism was inadvertent, she should have been allowed to retain her degree and correct her dissertation as President Poshard was.

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard

President Poshard has finished his dissertation after 45 years. Everythings fine now.
Geez, I almsot didn't get my dissertation accepted by the Graduate School 'cause the head of the school at the time thought it was one day late.

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard

Here's a link to the full report by the committee investigating Pres. Poshard's plagiarisms.

Labels: Glenn Poshard

Apparently President Poshard is guilty of violating today's style of citations but not those of 1984 in his college. He agrees to admit he made errors and update his papers to the style consistent with today's standards. Wonder how long before students ask to have that included in the university code of conduct as an option.

Labels: Glenn Poshard

I see we're back to attacking the messengers again instead of the message. Scroll down to read the latest two letters supporting President Poshard. Considering I haven't heard anything from the members of AFAC since the first week the story broke, I don't see any organized continual attack on him. Near as I can tell, AFAC, or someone, gave the info to the DE, offered it to the Carterville and Herrin papers (and maybe the Southern), and let events take their course.

Labels: Glenn Poshard

Quite a bit of back and forthing in the comments regarding this column about President Poshard and the AFAC in the DE.

Labels: Daily Egyptian, Glenn Poshard

From the Chronicle of Higher Education's website. Unfortunately, you need to purchase a day pass to read the entire article. It appears that appointing a panel of academics from SIUC may not be the best way to insure an impartial reading of the papers. I figure the panel will go ahead but would rather have seen a panel of academics from outside SIUC to ensure impartiality.

Labels: Glenn Poshard, siu

I was discussing the Poshard situation with a friend last night. No matter what happens, it hurts the university. Now, I'm working from the position that it was plagiarism or if not, sure smacks of it. I don't think anyone with any authority will ask for or force President Poshard to resign over this. He has too much support on the BOT and among faculty and staff as evidenced by the support he's gotten despite the fear of the AFAC. Additionally, there's no one waiting in the wings and a resignation would really impact the forward motion the university is showing. So, barring a third shoe dropping, not gonna happen.

On the other hand, given the excuses and justifications that have been made, what's to keep other plagiarists from offering up the same reasoning and request a do-over or the opportunity to bring their mistakenly plagiarized work up to accepted standards? If it's acceptable for the president of the university to be allowed to rework his work, why not a student? And I'm sorry, but I don't buy into the "standards have changed over the past 30 years" argument. I remember having to maintain standards when I wrote papers in the 70's and 80''s that were the same as what we have to do today. However this outcome, except to academic types, will hurt much less than the alternative of a resignation.

Labels: Glenn Poshard, siu

At least that's what this guest column in the Southern Illinoisan says.

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard

It's halfway down the page of today's IBHE News Digest, beaten out by more financial aid at ISU and black colleges not getting enough Pell grants.

Labels: Glenn Poshard

In case you missed it, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had an article on the Poshard situation. From the article:

In a related development, the Chronicle of Higher Education said in a story today that Poshard’s 1975 master’s thesis at SIU also appears to have some portions lifted from other sources without proper attribution. The issues with the master’s thesis are "considerably more minor" than those found in the dissertation, "but suggest a similar cut-and-paste methodology," the story says.

Dave Gross, an SIU spokesman, said the school has not yet seen the details of this accusation.

"But the single press account of it confirms again that Dr. Poshard’s underlying scholarship is not in question -- that these are technical and stylistic differences of opinion that date back decades," Gross said.

Labels: Glenn Poshard, siu

Labels: Glenn Poshard, Southern Illinoisan

I was just discussing the Poshard situation with my Dad and he asked a good question: What would be done if this information came out and Glenn Poshard was an instructor or professor instead of the head of the university?

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard, siu

Looks to me as if President Poshard has gotten quite a bit of support from the SIUC/Carbondale community, but according to this editorial in today's Southern Illinoisan, anyone who comes out in support of him should fear the AFAC:

AFAC should now do the right thing and allow Poshard to know who his accusers are. It also might calm the generally roiling academic waters at SIU. Who would dare to take a position in support of Poshard and risk a counter-attack by a shadowy group of accusers?

Me, anytime I read about AFAC, I think of a duck.

Labels: Glenn Poshard, siu, Southern Illinoisan

In an editorial today, the Chicago Tribune calls for President Poshard to step down. Oh, and the Board of Trustees is having a special meeting on Monday. Apparently, they're not going to wait for the Faculty Senate to weigh in.

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard, siu

Also on the Faculty Senate's agenda for next Tuesday is a resolution asking the BOT to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to investigate the accusations of plagiarism. Not just a panel but a blue-ribbon one! Anyway, the meeting's scheduled for next Tuesday at 1p.m. in the Kaskasia-Missouri rooms at the Student Center. Not sure if it's open to the public though.

Labels: Glenn Poshard, siu teaching

The Department of Higher Education has decided not to review Pres. Poshard's dissertation. The University hasn't started an investigation into the charges either, so the whole thing hangs in limbo currently. Despite what we would like, it's really hard to stop something like this once it's started. The quicker the situation gets resolved, the better off SIUC will be.

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard, siu

Professor Emeritus Friedenberg says in this letter that she presented President Poshard with evidence of plagiarism at a meeting in 2006. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but nowhere in the letter does it specifically state that it was allegations of his plagiarisms that she presented during the meeting. Nor does it say that she was the one that gave the information to the DE.

Labels: AFAC, Glenn Poshard, siu