Comments on A President Retires, and Plagiarism Probe Ends

• Learn to write, people!
• Posted by Justa Prof on January 21, 2009 at 9:56am EST

• I'm beginning to wonder if these people should be in Hire Education rather than Higher. Are they such poor writers that they must plagiarize? Why not be truly creative and hire someone to write your publications? Heck, at our institution in Illinois, we had a Chancellor (and now a President) accused of plagiarism. The former administrator simply recycled his own material, but the latter apparently lifted whole sentences and paragraphs from existing works in Education. This boiler-plate mentality seems to be all too pervasive these days--not just in HE. Is this simply laziness or do they lack knowledge of their own chosen profession? I believe they assume their work is of no significance and will be ignored.

• Anonymity, Collegiality, and the Right Tone
• Posted by G. Tod Slone , Editor at The American Dissident on January 21, 2009 at 10:41am EST

• “A President Retires, and Plagiarism Probe Ends” is a fine article because it does evoke some very interesting issues. However, it really fails to sufficiently examine them. Three issues, in particular, demand attention.

  1. Anonymity is the hiding place of cowards, who, however, at least are compelled to speak truth as they see it. My humble advice: MUSTER THE COURAGE TO SIGN YOUR NAME TO WHAT YOU WRITE OR DON’T WRITE IT! The more citizens (professors) failing to muster that courage, the more democracy becomes no more! Enough of this sickening wave of cutesy anonymity! Sadly, the large majority of professors are simply not at all compelled to speak the truth as they see it. That in itself is a worrisome commentary on the role models of higher education. Indeed, why has higher education become so very accepting of cowards as professors? Its ever increasing co-optation by the corporate model is likely the response.

  2. The plagiary allegation regarding President Cardenas and anyone else in a position, past or present, in higher education, MUST BE investigated. It is shameful to think that the herd professorate at U of Texas and U Mass would prefer not to investigate. It is akin to permitting the financial Wall Street crooks to remain largely faceless (it’s-time-to-move-on nonsense!), though they’ve destroyed the life savings of so many hard-working Americans, myself included. If I could, I would initiate a complaint at U Mass. Higher education must imply higher integrity, not business as usual.
  3. “Cardenas has ‘largely changed the tone’ on campus, promoting ‘a more collegial and transparent atmosphere,’” noted Buckman, president of the Texas Faculty Association. BUT we need to examine that statement! Has the “tone” become sufficiently deadened now to keep the grazing sheep content? Is that it? Why has collegiality become such a high priority in the nation’s universities and colleges today? The answer is quite simple: It tends to replace, if not prohibit, vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy. I have yet to see a job ad seeking a truth-telling assistant professor. Besides, collegiality tends also to be incompatible with “transparency.” Vague and undefined collegiality acts to muzzle free speech and expression. My very comments on Inside Higher Ed’s New Year’s poem were actually censored because they were insufficiently collegial. Will these comments also be censored?

• Nobody cares about cheating?
• Posted by Disgusted on January 21, 2009 at 11:36am EST

• So U. of Texas won't investigate plagiarism charges because the accused has resigned. Doesn't the faculty care whether spurious information is in the disciplinary literature? The corrective to plagiarism is to purge it from the body of accepted knowledge.

  And U/ Mass hasn't investigated whether it gave a doctoral degree to a plagiarized dissertation because "no one has asked us to investigate"!? Err...the campus might care whether it was deceived or not when awarding its highest scholarly honor.

  The cowards here are university administrators who are also supposedly members of a scholarly discipline, yet who don't care whether the body of knowledge is corrupt or not. The Texas faculty who produced the plagiarism evidence may do well to shield themselves through their anonymity, given how gutless the administration would be in defending them from retaliation. If the evidence of plagiarism is provided with the original and the plagiarized sources, then who cares which faculty discovered the plagiarism when it's there to be seen?

• Posted by Justa Prof on January 21, 2009 at 11:36am EST

• Todd,
  If you do not have tenure, then signing ones name can lead to your firing by the very plagiarists who run the system. Cowardly, perhaps, but not all of us are fortunate to be in a protected position. That's the real world--not a protected think-tank operation.

• Posted by lowly adjunct on January 21, 2009 at 12:01pm EST

• I teach English 101. We are told to make a Very Big Deal re: plagiarism, but no one else takes it seriously. Famous people, including our new vice-president, plagiarized, but no one cares. If students are caught cheating, they have so many "rights" that faculty (especially contingent faculty like me) are intimidated from speaking up: we are as disposable as Kleenex b/c we are not paying customers as Administration sees it. Anyway, if the students copy, it's our fault for not teaching them better. This particular plagiarizer folded her hand unusually soon. Most just hang tough and stay on to win. I have never, ever seen anything bad happen to a student who plagiarized regardless. Much less less those higher up on the food chain. I think this person really did have health problems and would have quit anyway. The plagiarism thing is a gnat not an elephant.

• plagiarism and anonymity
• Posted by Linda McPhee on January 21, 2009 at 1:05pm EST

• I teach academic writing, and I've pointed out instances of plagiarism and signed my name. But at the same time, I can see that there are times when anonymity makes sense -- for instance if the whistleblower would be subject of a backlash (and historically, whistleblowers have not fared well as a group). But if you're going to be annonymous, send copies of the proof as well. If the plagiarism is clearcut, then not dealing with it even with proof in hand is the more cowardly act... not collating and sending the evidence. (I do not know if this was the case here, of course.)

• Anonymity and Plagiarism
• Posted by G. Tod Slone , Editor at The American Dissident on January 21, 2009 at 6:00pm EST

• Actually, I’m not at all in “a protected position.” I’m unemployed and probably unemployable regarding future full-time higher ed position openings. My track record as a vocal dissident is all too proven and openly available. However, I’d rather flip burgers than learn how to stifle my thoughts and pen. The crux of the problem remains: the academic culture encourages anonymity. What it fails to encourage is vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy. Tenure, by no means, has reduced that phenomenon, which is probably why tenure ought to be eliminated. Plagiarism is, by the way, simply another form of prevarication and cheating, that is, intellectual corruption, a perhaps widespread phenomenon in higher education.
  How can one possibly trust persons hiding behind the convenient veil of anonymity to speak truth? After all, they do not have the guts to do so openly. Why would the frightened anonymous professor not fear being found out and thus choose not to speak truthfully even in anonymity? Whenever I’ve wanted to say something, either I did so with my name attached or didn’t say it at all.
  “The system ultimately crushes dissenters, making the entire enterprise in speaking out pointless,” wrote an adjunct-college instructor, anonymously to me one day. Yet what better way to express ones dignity and individuality as a human being than “speaking out”? I replied. To call it “pointless” was wrong, for to do so justified spinelessness.
  “Clearly, you believe it has been better to speak out than tow enough of the line to get and keep a tenure track position,” she wrote back. Yet if I had towed, would I not have become someone quite different today, yet another toadie in academic regalia, who didn’t speak out and was able to skillfully rationalize why one shouldn’t? For one thing, I’d likely not have my dignity as a human being, though I would have had tenure. That was precisely the problem with the institution of tenure. It was a Faustian deal, one where dignity, courage, reasoning, and personality were traded for MONEY and COMFORT. Yes, I’ve told that to many tenured professors and have been called many names for doing so.

• Post Scriptum
• Posted by G. Tod Slone , Editor at The American Dissident on January 21, 2009 at 6:00pm EST

• The question, of course, remains: Will Justa Prof remain Justa Prof after he gets tenure? If we had statistics on that question, I’m certain they would indicate a high liklihood that Justa Prof would remain Justa Prof. After all, the carrots do not stop after tenure. Remunerated extra course assignments, sabbaticals, promotions, and early retirement all demand collegial silence too! Indeed, statistics would more than likely indicate that it is a very rare case for an anonymous-mindset pre-tenure prof to do an about face after obtaining tenure. It is what has poisoned higher ed.

• UMass
• Posted by Ralph E. Luker on January 21, 2009 at 6:00pm EST

• Whether she retires or not, UMass ought to care enough about the integrity of its degree programs to conduct its own inquiry into the charge of plagiarism in her dissertation. If she is guilty, the degree should be revoked.

• Posted by Justa Prof on January 22, 2009 at 8:51am EST

• G. Todd,
  The position I have is not a tenured position and can be terminated with minimal notice. I realize that your Redcoat approach sounds like bravery to some. To others, it sounds foolhardy, especially when a family is depending upon you. You are not in the real world.

  As to whether or not I would give my name, if tenured, I probably would sign it. Whether or not you believe it, I really do not care, since your objections are theoretical anyway. Peace.

• Pseudonymity Redux
• Posted by G. Tod Slone , Editor at The American Dissident on January 22, 2009 at 10:55am EST

• Justa Prof,
  Vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy! That's what academe should be. That's what we are having here! Well, you did certainly choose an excellent pseudonym. As mentioned above, the excuses to suppress ones thoughts and muzzle ones mouth are shamefully numerous in higher ed. You’ve added yet another one: “To others, it sounds foolhardy, especially when a family is depending upon you. You are not in the real world.” You’re right, I am not in the “real world”… of spinelessness and cocoon comfort and am more than happy that I am not. How could professors possibly understand somebody like me, who actually tends to “go upright and vital and speak the rude truth in all ways” (Emerson) and lets his life “be a counterfriction to stop the machine” (Thoreau)? How could that possibly sound like “bravery” to those who would never do as much? My “objections” are hardly “theoretical,” as you denigrate them. When employed full-time in academe I’ve always expressed my opinions openly, where my tenured colleagues would never have the courage to do so. That is not “theoretical.” I have paid for it career-wise, but have been greatly rewarded creativity-wise. Indeed, conflict with academics, poets et al has certainly been the major flame in my writing and sketching. Free speech… not peace!

• Presidents and the probes they face.
• Posted by UTPA STUDENT , Just another day... on January 22, 2009 at 10:25pm EST

• Considerate professors, I am and have likely been in your class...and if I have learned much about the way in which people live it is, we can always hold ourselves accountable. The institution of higher learning should in my opinion never become void of that most sacred attribute we call compassion. Too many times, my professors have forgotten how human they like I am, in doing so, despite the reality of the situation, perhaps much more than just a career is at stake. Considerate professors did not being their careers knowing how to write, the process is long and unfinished...they will likely die before the standard to suffice today will at some point in time become moot. As a student, I have thought of the many reasons why I would stand behind my president. I charge that even the President of our country would do the same as she was offered the position of Secretary of Education. The question will inevitably be a matter of why, the answer I believe is as clear to anyone who has come to know my president, she is considerate compassionate, and has what so many others lack I dare say a heart of gold.