2008 Woodie Awards
More thoughts on Poshard arise
Guest column
David Hamann, guest columnist
Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: Opinion
At the beginning of this school year, I wrote a letter to the editor expressing my disgust at the way that SIU was handling what has now been determined to be the "inadvertent plagiarism" of Dr. Poshard. As I stated in my earlier article, I have never met this man. What I do know is that he should be held to the same standards as any other faculty or student at this university.
To quote my grandpa, "It seems to me that Dr. Poshard is saying that he is 'kind of' pregnant."
My grandpa's reasoning for this is there is no way that you can be kind of pregnant. You either are pregnant or you are not pregnant. The school has defined plagiarism in the student handbook so clearly that there is no way that you can "kind of" plagiarize. However, SIU had written a new definition for "kind of" plagiarizing, now defined as inadvertent plagiarism, or the "Poshard loop-hole" as some fellow students are calling it.
At the date of writing this article, I have 54 days until I walk down the aisle at graduation, and now I can tell all my potential employers that I went to the university that can redefine words.
If you feel so inclined, Google "inadvertent plagiarism" and you will quickly find 81,800 Web sites that deal with this phrase. Even our own Alestle articles make it in the top ten articles in the entire World Wide Web. Many of these Web sites are from other schools detailing their policies or views on inadvertent plagiarism. It appears they all come to the same conclusion; inadvertent plagiarism is still viewed as plagiarism, regardless of intent.
Dr. Poshard's e-mail to the entire university on the evening his plagiarism was deemed inadvertent talked about how he wishes to uphold this university to the highest standards and continue growing in excellence. While this is a condensed version of what the e-mail stated, it was spoken like a true politician. The acceptance of responsibility for this situation is minimal and for some odd reason he never seems to touch on why he is classified under different standards than the rest of the academic community.
I am not saying by any means that my act of plagiarism should be handled differently. I would just like a logical, non-fluffed political statement on why Dr. Poshard is allowed to be held to different standards than I am. Is that so much to ask? Apparently, the question is difficult to answer.
The Faculty Senate has recently called for the resignation of Dr. Poshard and postponed the proposal to split from the SIU system. Can I get an answer before we change our entire system? If we are going to change our system, then can we not have a university president judged by a panel of his peers, and did anybody think to include a single SIUE professor in that panel, or does SIUE really not matter that much?
To quote my grandpa, "It seems to me that Dr. Poshard is saying that he is 'kind of' pregnant."
My grandpa's reasoning for this is there is no way that you can be kind of pregnant. You either are pregnant or you are not pregnant. The school has defined plagiarism in the student handbook so clearly that there is no way that you can "kind of" plagiarize. However, SIU had written a new definition for "kind of" plagiarizing, now defined as inadvertent plagiarism, or the "Poshard loop-hole" as some fellow students are calling it.
At the date of writing this article, I have 54 days until I walk down the aisle at graduation, and now I can tell all my potential employers that I went to the university that can redefine words.
If you feel so inclined, Google "inadvertent plagiarism" and you will quickly find 81,800 Web sites that deal with this phrase. Even our own Alestle articles make it in the top ten articles in the entire World Wide Web. Many of these Web sites are from other schools detailing their policies or views on inadvertent plagiarism. It appears they all come to the same conclusion; inadvertent plagiarism is still viewed as plagiarism, regardless of intent.
Dr. Poshard's e-mail to the entire university on the evening his plagiarism was deemed inadvertent talked about how he wishes to uphold this university to the highest standards and continue growing in excellence. While this is a condensed version of what the e-mail stated, it was spoken like a true politician. The acceptance of responsibility for this situation is minimal and for some odd reason he never seems to touch on why he is classified under different standards than the rest of the academic community.
I am not saying by any means that my act of plagiarism should be handled differently. I would just like a logical, non-fluffed political statement on why Dr. Poshard is allowed to be held to different standards than I am. Is that so much to ask? Apparently, the question is difficult to answer.
The Faculty Senate has recently called for the resignation of Dr. Poshard and postponed the proposal to split from the SIU system. Can I get an answer before we change our entire system? If we are going to change our system, then can we not have a university president judged by a panel of his peers, and did anybody think to include a single SIUE professor in that panel, or does SIUE really not matter that much?
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Poshard shirts!
posted 10/31/07 @ 12:15 AM CST
WHOA! Now they are selling "Poshard: not my president" t-shirts on CafePress! Someone finally did it!
Hamann's grandfather said it best. You can like the guy or not, but the fact of the matter is he plagiarised. (Continued…)
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