[EDLING:355] Southern Illinois President Faces Allegations He Plagiarized His Dissertation

[Harold Schiffman]

Southern Illinois President Faces Allegations He Plagiarized His
Dissertation

By THOMAS BARTLETT <thomas.bartlett at chronicle.com>

 The president of Southern Illinois University, Glenn Poshard, is being
forced to defend his 1984 dissertation against accusations that it contains
numerous examples of plagiarism and improper citation. The student newspaper
at the university's Carbondale campus, the *Daily
Egyptian,*<http://media.www.siude.com/media/storage/paper1096/news/2007/08/30/Campus/Poshard.Defends.Dissertation.Against.Plagiarism.Charges-2943746.shtml>did
a detailed examination of his dissertation and presented its findings
to
Mr. Poshard this week. He told the newspaper that he was very busy when the
dissertation was completed. "This is not an excuse, and I would never offer
it up as an excuse, but at that point in my life, I had a family," he was
quoted as saying. "I worked two jobs. I was running for the Illinois State
Senate. I was trying to get my dissertation finished." Mr. Poshard received
his Ph.D. in education from Southern Illinois at Carbondale.

Through a spokesman, Mr. Poshard declined an interview request from *The
Chronicle,* but the spokesman said Mr. Poshard would respond to the
allegations after he had had a chance to review them. The allegations are
the latest in a series of accusations of plagiarism against top officials at
Southern Illinois. Last year Mr. Poshard asked the chancellor of the
university's Carbondale campus, Walter V. Wendler, to step down after
revelations that portions of a strategic plan Mr. Wendler put together came
from an earlier strategic plan he helped write for Texas A&M University at
College Station (*The
Chronicle,*<http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/11/2006110907n.htm>November
9, 2006).

Mr. Wendler's copying was brought to light by a group of professors and
students close to Chris Dussold, an assistant professor of finance at
Southern Illinois at Edwardsville who was fired in 2004 for copying his
two-page teaching statement (*The
Chronicle,*<http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i23/23a00801.htm>February
10, 2006). After his dismissal, Mr. Dussold and a group of
supporters set out to uncover examples of plagiarism at the university in
order to prove that he had been treated unfairly. Mr. Dussold has filed a
lawsuit against the university for wrongful termination. A copy of Mr.
Poshard's dissertation, titled "The Provisions for Gifted Children Education
from 1977 Through 1983 in 22 Southern Illinois Counties," along with copies
of sources he quotes, was provided to *The Chronicle* by a source on the
condition of anonymity.

There are several examples in the dissertation of what might be called
classic plagiarism: Passages are lifted verbatim, or near verbatim, with no
citation given. In one instance, a 68-word passage from another source is
used without quotation marks or citation. The two passages are identical
except for a single word change: Mr. Poshard has substituted "a" for
"another." In another example, an 80-word section, also lacking quotation
marks or citation, is taken from another source with only a few minor
changes -- such as switching a verb from "has been" to "was."

In addition, there are numerous examples in which Mr. Poshard appears to
disregard the accepted rules of crediting someone else's work. While he may
cite a particular source, he often fails to place quotation marks around
passages he uses verbatim. For instance, Mr. Poshard writes that "It has
become almost axiomatic to say that the welfare of the world rests
significantly with the utilization of the potential of the gifted youth to
solve social, economic, ecological, political, and human problems." He cites
the source but does not indicate that the passage is copied nearly word for
word. There are so many examples of such practices that the dissertation
seems as if it has been cut-and-pasted from other sources. Mr. Poshard told
the student newspaper that no one on his dissertation committee told him
that he had to use quotation marks.

In a written statement, the chairman of the Southern Illinois Board of
Trustees, Roger B. Tedrick, seemed dismissive of the accusations of
plagiarism. "Although we take any allegations of this nature seriously, we
believe this has less to do with what happened 24 years ago and more to do
with the current litigation," he said. In an e-mail message, a spokesman for
Mr. Poshard said that the president planned to meet with faculty and staff
leaders to give his perspective "of the anonymous assertions that have been
made."

Mr. Poshard will then "make a determination as to what, if any, impact this
matter will have on his leadership role at the university."
http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/08/2007083103n.htm?=attn

Posted by: Harold F. Schiffman

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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