Apparently, I owe an apology to a college student I failed in 1985 for plagiarizing his thesis on space travel.  That's because the University of Southern Illinois now indicates that his particular "style" of doing research was commonplace and forgivable.

            And since I cannot possibly recall all their individual names, I suppose a blanket apology is required for the scores of students I failed for the same reason in all the classes I ever taught, now that SIU has forgiven its President, Glenn Poshard, for filling  his Phd. dissertation with pilfered paragraphs.

While I'm at it, I need to say sorry to my wife and to my boss, for neglecting my responsibilities to them during the countless hours I devoted exclusively to my own thesis on Irish playwright Samuel Becket back in 1974.   Because now they tell me—they being the SIU seven member faculty investigating committee-- that Poshard's padding his paper with multiple paragraphs copied verbatim from other sources, without quotes or footnotes,  was "consistent with the style used at the time by other graduate students."   Apparently, I was too naïve to know I could have saved  hours and headaches by simply copying thousands of words from already published sources to submit as my own. 

The seven committee members, who work for SIU President Poshard, assigned no penalty,  told him he may keep his job and to correct his dissertation.  They justified their October 12th decision on the basis that SIU had no "definition" or "code of conduct" regarding plagiarism in the olden days of 1984.

This plagiarism debacle began in 2004 when SIU professor Chris Dussold was fired for plagiarizing a two page teaching statement.  He and his supporters subsequently formed its own committee to investigate plagiarism elsewhere, which led to Poshard's dissertation being challenged.

  Poshard himself had protested  that he did not remember discussing plagiarism in his classes, and this his teachers did not teach how to avoid it.   Nor, evidently,  was his plagiarism  an issue for his Phd. advsiors: "No one on my committee said that when you reference and cite something correctly that you have to go up and put quotes around it," he said. 

          Furthermore, he was not responsible,  couldn't help it,  didn't know the ropes, and was way too busy at the time:  "I worked two jobs. I was running for the Illinois State Senate. I was trying to get my dissertation finished."

About the only thing left out of his plea was that his dog ate his bibliography!

Give me a break. 

Are my ears not working right, or is this not the number one educator at a  state university, echoing the same tired claims of countless  students caught  cheating in school over the years?

What is even more embarrassing to everyone else in higher education is the rationalizing of the  SIU investigating committee.   You don't need a "code of conduct" to know that cheating in college is wrong.  Just as wrong in the 70's and 80's as it is today.

Granted, copyright laws and MLA style rules are voluminous and complex, but all are anchored on the same single principle: when a student  signs his name to an essay, he is saying that every one of the sentences is his own, except for those he tags with a citation.    When any portion of that for which he claims ownership, turns out to be someone else's, then it's theft, plain and simple.

           In Glenn Poshard's doctoral thesis about programs in education for the gifted,  the committee found 14 passages copied from other sources without citations (presenting others' findings as his own), and 16 other passages copied and cited, but not placed in quotations (presenting others' words as his own).

        Thousands of  students in American schools have received F's for considerably less.

        Glenn Poshard can keep his job, if SIU  still wants him. 

        But his degree is another matter.  Degrees and diplomas are supposed to be guarantees, and his does not guarantee the scholarship and integrity it's supposed to. 

        Yet there may be a silver lining in all of this.   If it is sincerely believed that a college president and holder of the highest academic degree, did not understand the process, thereby rendering his theft "inadvertent," according to the SIU committee, then there just might be something terribly wrong with the process for documenting research.

       After all, Poshard is only one of the  41% of  all college students  that have plagiarized, according to a study by Duke University in 2001.

        This could be a golden opportunity for the organization that makes the rules for  academic research, to initiate some reforms.  The Modern Language Association (MLA) might consider revamping what is manifestly a defective method for incorporating multiple voices within an essay, when they meet for their annual convention in Chicago this December.

        Since Poshard is just one of the thousands of students each year who characterized his theft as an "honest mistake," of merely forgetting  citations or a set of punctuation marks,   MLA could conceivably eliminate such mistakes by dispensing with the artificial tags altogether. 

       Here's a concept: how about if MLA  calls for students to credit authors  immediately upon using their ideas or expressions, in simple declarative sentences?

       Of course, it's more complicated.  But surely, MLA ought to be able to  figure out a system  less confusing than the U.S. Tax Code, and one that even your average university president can understand.

David McGrath is English Professor Emeritus, College of DuPage.

Published October 15, 2007