Quick Takes: New Plagiarism Charges at Southern Illinois, Southern U. Settles With President, Pharmacy Exams Suspended, Temporary Reprieve for St. Andrews, Ontario to Allow Unionization of College Part Timers, NCAA Bends a Rule for Recruit's Funeral

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Less than a year after the chancellor of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale was forced out amid allegations that he had plagiarized material from another university's strategic plan, the president of the Southern Illinois system is facing charges that he lifted portions of his 1984 doctorate from other sources without proper attribution. The Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper at the university's Carbondale campus, said that documents provided to it by an anonymous source revealed numerous instances in which text is identical to other works that are not cited in the dissertation. Poshard denied having committed plagiarism, but also told the newspaper that he had little recollection of a document he hadn't seen in 24 years. "I could have made a mistake," Poshard told the Egyptian. "I'm not saying I didn't." The chairman of Southern Illinois's Board of Trustees, Roger Tedrick, suggested that the allegations had been made by a former faculty member who has sued the university and that, while the trustees "take any allegations of this nature seriously, we believe this has less to do with what happened twenty-four years ago and more to do with the current litigation." The board stands behind the president, Tedrick said in a statement released by a university spokesman.
The Southern University System and its president, Ralph Slaughter, have agreed to settle a whistle blower lawsuit he filed saying he was retaliated against for revealing sexual harassment complaints brought against the system's board chairman, The Advocate of Baton Rouge reported. The agreement, terms of which were not fully disclosed, could nearly double Slaughter's annual pay over the two-year deal, to $420,000. Slaughter had been suspended from the presidency after alleging the wrongdoing by Johnny Anderson, a top aide to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy announced that it has suspended its national licensing examination and a comparable Georgia test amid allegations that a University of Georgia professor used questions from the exams in a course packet he gave to students in a test-preparation course. The pharmacy association has sued the professor, Flynn Warren Jr., in federal court for copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets, according to a report in the university's student newspaper, the Red and Black. The suspension of the tests was necessary to "ensure that the integrity of the examinations is maintained," the association said in its written statement.
A federal judge issued an order Thursday that will allow St. Andrews Presbyterian College, in North Carolina, to keep its accreditation while the court hears its lawsuit against the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, The News and Observer of Raleigh reported. The Southern accreditor revoked the college's accreditation last week, citing financial problems; college officials assert that the accreditor has ignored evidence of significant improvement in its situation.
The Ontario government said it would seek legislation that would give part-time workers at colleges in the Canadian province the right to bargain collectively. The government had been under pressure from the National Union of Public and General Employees to allow 16,000 workers at the province's 24 colleges -- which are equivalent to technical and community colleges -- to unionize.
Even a rule-bound organization like the National Collegiate Athletic Association couldn't let a rule get in the way this time. The NCAA on Thursday announced that it would waive a rule that had seemed on the verge of blocking a University of Oklahoma football booster from paying for the funeral of a would-be Sooner player who was shot to death last week. Herman Mitchell, a 17-year-old who this summer had verbally committed to attending Oklahoma in 2008-9, was killed in a fight at an apartment complex in Houston. Adam Fineberg, a Houston man and Oklahoma football booster, began raising money to help Mitchell's family pay for the funeral. But because Mitchell's younger brother also plays high school football and is a potential Oklahoma recruit, university officials alerted Fineberg that his efforts might run afoul of NCAA rules barring boosters from giving money or gifts to prospective players. Oklahoma officials and the NCAA reached agreement that will allow the funds to be used. “This is a tragic circumstance, and we are glad we were able to work quickly with OU to assist this family in their time of need,” said Kevin Lennon, the NCAA's vice president for membership services.