Dean offers response to plagiarism allegations
Issue date: 11/15/05 Section: Editorial
The allegations of plagiarism leveled by the Alestle toward the School of Business are biased and exaggerated.
The Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005, edition of the Alestle alleged two instances of plagiarism.
In the first alleged instance, the School of Business Web site "Welcome," which features my photograph, contains a composite of corporately composed information regarding the School of Business. It is common practice for public relations-oriented text to be composed by various individuals who work together to create an image for an organization. The organizational image we wanted to project did not change when I became dean, so we felt no need to change the text of the welcome message. In no way did our continued use of that text constitute plagiarism. It is important to note, too, that the copyright of Web site material is held by Southern Illinois University, unless specified otherwise. There was no infringement of intellectual property.
The second alleged instance of plagiarism refers to the phrasing on the "Welcome" page which mirrors phrasing found on a Web site at the University of Southern California. I am not aware of the author of the phrasing.
Within the past 24 hours I have initiated the following actions: I have asked the School of Business Web master to remove the phrase from our Web site. I have also sent a letter to my counterpart dean at the University of Southern California. The letter advised him of the common phrasing on our Web sites, and indicated that the phrase on our Web site would be deleted.
It is unfortunate that the publicity generated by the Alestle article may reflect poorly upon the students, faculty and staff of the School of Business. The faculty, staff and students of the School of Business are committed to professional behavior characterized in the Code of Professionalism recently adopted by the faculty. I adhere to and uphold that code and believe that the incidents described above do not violate our code or any university policy.
Gary A. Giamartino
Dean
School of Business
The Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005, edition of the Alestle alleged two instances of plagiarism.
In the first alleged instance, the School of Business Web site "Welcome," which features my photograph, contains a composite of corporately composed information regarding the School of Business. It is common practice for public relations-oriented text to be composed by various individuals who work together to create an image for an organization. The organizational image we wanted to project did not change when I became dean, so we felt no need to change the text of the welcome message. In no way did our continued use of that text constitute plagiarism. It is important to note, too, that the copyright of Web site material is held by Southern Illinois University, unless specified otherwise. There was no infringement of intellectual property.
The second alleged instance of plagiarism refers to the phrasing on the "Welcome" page which mirrors phrasing found on a Web site at the University of Southern California. I am not aware of the author of the phrasing.
Within the past 24 hours I have initiated the following actions: I have asked the School of Business Web master to remove the phrase from our Web site. I have also sent a letter to my counterpart dean at the University of Southern California. The letter advised him of the common phrasing on our Web sites, and indicated that the phrase on our Web site would be deleted.
It is unfortunate that the publicity generated by the Alestle article may reflect poorly upon the students, faculty and staff of the School of Business. The faculty, staff and students of the School of Business are committed to professional behavior characterized in the Code of Professionalism recently adopted by the faculty. I adhere to and uphold that code and believe that the incidents described above do not violate our code or any university policy.
Gary A. Giamartino
Dean
School of Business
