Carbondale Bytelife

The committee tasked with drawing up the new guidelines for SIUC's plagerism policy has been accused of, wait for it, no not yet, almost, yes plagiarism.

Labels: ethics, plagiarism, siuc

Chancellor Goldman has this to say about the anti Abortion display at SIUC earlier this week.

Labels: ethics, Sam Goldman, siuc

The DE has more on the Simon affair. Chancellor Goldman say taht Prof. Simon was never relaly fired:

"He was never fired," Goldman said. "You know the line, 'Until the fat lady sings, nothing happens.' Well, until I render a decision, nothing matters really. Then that decision stands."

However, this statement by interim Provost Don Rice sounds pretty clear to me:

In the letter, Rice wrote, "As Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor, I am responsible for making assessments that affect the University as a whole. I understand and accept that you will be disappointed by my decision and, of course, I regret having to communicate the outcome of my review to you. However, please know that I wish you well in your future endeavors."

According to the article, if SIUC's faculty union had not filed a grievance on Prof. Simon's firing within 10 days, Provost Rice's decision would have been final. The references to offers and counteroffers made at the June 10th hearing sure don't sound like "working through a good, amiicable resolution", nor does it indicate there was "no question Simon would continue teaching on campus".

Labels: ethics, John Simon, siuc

Found the following in the current News of the Weird:

Labels: ethics, siuc

Found this brief article in the NYT interesting. A small meatpacker, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wanted to test all of its cows for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department, at the behest of larger meat packers, sued in federal court to stop the company from doing it. Apparently, the test is quite expensive and, while economically feasible for a small company without many cows, woudl be quite expensive for a larger meat packer, cutting into profits. Rather than competing with Creekstone, who could advertise its beef as "tested Mad Cow Disease free", and maybe take some sales away from them, the large packers opted for the easier route and just got the tests shut down.

Labels: business, ethics, food

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

SIUC is not the only university with plagiarism problems. Ohio University has a couple of lawsuits filed against it by a professor who was stripped of his duties to advise graduate students and denied pay raises for a year after a finding of 20 years worth of plagiarism among graduate students in the engineering program.

Labels: crime, ethics

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

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard

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

From what I've read, one of the problems that led to to the plagiarisms problem was the BOT's reliance on the use of Turnitin to test Pres. Poshard's dissertation. For those not familiar with Turnitin, it has become a fairly standard method of checking papers for plagiarism. Basically, you upload the paper in question to Turnitin, the program checks the paper against other papers in its database and reports what percentage of the paper appears copied from other papers in the database and where the papers in question can be found. Once a paper is submitted, it becomes part of the database for future searches. I know of instructors who routinely have all students run their papers through Turnitin before submitting them.

A downside to the program is what appears to have happened in this case. If papers or books aren't in the database or online, Turnitin can't check against them so returns a result of no plagiarism present. The materials in question are old and obscure enough that no one has put them online, ergo they are not accessible for comparison by Turnitin.

I have used Turnitin to catch plagiarized materials in class. A group of students turned in a term paper incorporating concepts more appropriate to a graduate level than an undergraduate class. When I ran it through Turnitin, it showed 90% of the paper had come from another source, specifically a paper from the Wharton School of Business website. If you're going to steal, steal from the best, says I.

Labels: ethics, plagiarism

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

This'll show 'em (and who's the AFEC they're censuring?):

FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Resolution to Censure the Anonymous Group, “Alumni and Faculty
against Corruption at SIU” (AFAC)

WHEREAS the politically motivated initiatives of “Alumni and Faculty against
Corruption at SIU” (hereafter “AFAC”), are not likely to end with the current
plagiarism accusations against President Poshard, regardless of the outcome;
and

WHEREAS AFAC’s methods of achieving their goals are tarnishing the image
of the entire university;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that 1) Faculty Senate strongly censure
AFAC for its use of inappropriate methods to tarnish the image and
reputation of faculty and staff at SIU; and 2) that Faculty Senate recommend
SIU’s Board of Trustees also strongly censures AFEC.

Labels: ethics, siu

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

According to today's Southern Illinoisan, President Poshard has asked the College of Education to review his dissertation and tell him what changes should be made.

In a conversation I had today, the person I was talking with argued it was acceptable practice at the time, when quoting large blocks of text, to indent and footnote the cited text rather than highlighting it with quotation marks. I don't recall this as appropriate during my undergraduate years but my memory is hazy on the subject. Anyone more certain on the subject?

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard, siu

In a front page article in today's Southern Illinoisan, President Poshard defended himself against the charges of plagiarism, saying that while it was true he had not indicated the cited passages with quotation marks, all of the material had been referenced with footnotes. Furthermore, his dissertation committee signed off on the paper without question.

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard

The Board of Trustees supports President Poshard in the dispute surround the plagiarism accusations. From the article, the BOT knew it several months ago but apparently didn't think the accusation in and of itself was particularly important.


I did like this quote from Trustee Samuel Goldman:

I am convinced - as I was before it even began - the issue we face I think is the difference between intent and error," Goldman said. "And to be a plagiarist, you have to show intent.

How do you take from 30 sources without intent? I'll be interested in seeing how this shakes out

BTW, here's the Merriam Webster definition of plagiarism.

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard, siu

6 page story (well 5 pages and an editorial) in the DE today. Wow. First ex-Chancellor Wendler, now this. Two things I figure from the stories:

1. Someone pointed the paper at it. No one goes back and looks at a 24 year old dissertation on a whim.

2. The DE is getting help from someone. The DE reporters did a good job, but no-one who's not trained in the area could dig out 30+ examples of plagiarism in the week the DE says it's worked on the story.

From what I've heard, the Chronicle of Higher Education is preparing a story on it as well, much as the magazine did with the controversy over Wendler here and Dussold up at SIUE.

Labels: ethics, Glenn Poshard, siu

State officials think certain SIU professors require remedial ethics because they completed an Ethics multiple-choice test too quickly. But the professors aren't taking it lying down. At least four are refusing to cooperate. Inside Higher Ed :: Ethical Dilemma. Can you blame them?

Labels: ethics, siu