Pantagraph.com Weather forecast, local radar and more
NewsFriday, September 7, 2007 1:59 PM CDT
Comments Comments (0) | E-mail this page E-mail this page | Print this page Print this page | Enlarge type Enlarge type | Reduce type Reduce type | Search archives Search archives | RSS RSS feeds | Add to My Yahoo! Add to My Yahoo!
SIU staying clear of Poshard plagiarism flap
By Jim Suhr
Associated Press
Advertisement

The Southern Illinois University’s president weighed his options Thursday for resolving claims that parts of his 1984 doctoral dissertation were plagiarized, saying the academic department he asked to review the work has declined to get involved.

Glenn Poshard last Friday requested that the Department of Higher Education and Administration at SIU’s flagship Carbondale campus — Poshard’s alma mater — look over his doctoral thesis and determine how he can remedy what he called “unintended mistakes’’ in its citations.

But that department’s chief, Brad Colwell, told SIU’s Board of Trustees on Wednesday he was declining Poshard’s request, concluding that “a committee with broader academic representation would be more appropriate for this review,’’ said David Gross, a Poshard spokesman.

Colwell’s decision leaves the review process unresolved, Gross said.

Interview requests Thursday by telephone and e-mail for Colwell, whose department approved of Poshard’s dissertation nearly a quarter-century ago, were not immediately returned.

The plagiarism claims surfaced last week when the school’s student newspaper, the Daily Egyptian, reported that the dissertation it said it obtained from an anonymous source found at least 30 sections either not attributed to their original sources or not put in quotation marks to show they weren’t Poshard’s writing.

Poshard told reporters last Friday he might have mistakenly left out some citations in the dissertation — with the blessings of his doctoral committee — but he didn’t plagiarize.

“I did not try to deceive anybody about where it came from,’’ said Poshard, a former five-term congressman and one-time Democratic candidate for Illinois governor.

Poshard insisted he would not resign from the presidency post he has held since January of last year. But he didn’t minimize the importance of his doctorate in ascending to the highest ranks of the roughly 35,000-student university system.

“Would I be president of this university without the Ph.D.? No, I could not be,’’ Poshard said last week, adding that “there is no way the board of trustees would hire someone here without a Ph.D. to run the university.’’

Poshard said he wanted Colwell’s department to review the allegations, examine the dissertation and its cited sources, and “to advise me on corrections necessary to make this dissertation consistent with the highest academic standards.’’

“When mistakes are made, even though unintentional, they need to be promptly acknowledged and remedied,’’ Poshard said.

Poshard said any decision on his job status ultimately would rest with his bosses — the trustees. When asked whether he feared possibly being stripped of his degree, Poshard quickly replied, “Absolutely not.’’

The allegations follow Poshard’s ouster last year of the school’s chancellor, Walter Wendler, who had been accused of lifting sections from a strategic plan for a Texas school where he worked, then using them in SIU’s long-range plan. Poshard said Wendler’s failure to be a team player — not the plagiarism questions — cost him his job.

Three years ago, SIU fired professor Chris Dussold for reportedly plagiarizing his two-page teaching statement.

Along the way, both Wendler and the chancellor of SIU’s sister campus in Edwardsville apologized last year for what they called unintentional lack of attribution to portions of one public speech they made.

Video
Most commented stories
Browse online archives
Recent issues:
Reader comments on this story - 0 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.
Add your own comments

Please read the rules before posting comments.

You must be logged in to leave comments.
If you don't have a member ID, please register.

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login?
(requires cookies)
  Forgot Your Password?
 
Lee Enterprises Customer Service | 301 W. Washington St., PO Box 2907, Bloomington, IL 61701-2907 | Ph. 309-829-9000 | 800-747-7323
Copyright © 2008, Pantagraph Publishing Co. and Lee Enterprises. All rights reserved. | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy