* 3:01 pm - Poshard will keep his job, rewrite paper…
A Southern Illinois University investigation into plagiarism allegations against President Glenn Poshard found that portions of his master’s and doctoral writings were lifted or improperly cited, and that they would not hold up to today’s academic standards.
Poshard, who will keep his job, should correct the errors using currently acceptable citation practices, according to the seven-member faculty committee that reviewed Poshard’s graduate work from the 1970s and 1980s.
The board of trustees, which has expressed its support for the beleaguered president, again said today that Poshard should continue as the leader of the state’s second-largest university. He had faced the possibility of disciplinary hearings or revocation of his graduate degrees.
“Even though the Review Committee says these mistakes were unintentional and inadvertent, they are my mistakes. And I take full responsibility for them,” Poshard said in a statement. “At no time in my life would I have ever intentionally brought harm to this University or its reputation, but even for those unintentional acts, I apologize to the University community.”
* 3:38 pm - Mayor Daley is insulted by press coverage of his budget plan. Whatever…
“All of the sudden, you blasted me the first day without ever hearing anything. I went there [to editorial boards] for maybe an hour and, all of the sudden, you decided that everything is bad. Everything is wrong. That I don’t understand struggling families. That’s an insult to me,” the mayor told reporters at an unrelated news conference at Davis Square Park, 4430 S. Marshfield.
“You’ve done a lot to me over the years. You try to put me in different images. And you have the power of the pen. You have all the ink you want. But, I hope you never say I don’t understand the people of Chicago. I’ve been mayor since 1989. I’ve lived in this city all my life. . Never try to say that the mayor doesn’t care about struggling people . I have worked very hard as a public official to understand the problems.” […]
“We’re talking about $100 at the most on a $250,000 [home]. One-hundred dollars at the most. And that’s the highest. That’s what we’re talking about. So, don’t infer that, some way, real estate taxes are just gonna be thrown away wasteful,” he said.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:04 pm:
Sanity wins for once.
- downhereforyears - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:13 pm:
Perfect solution…congratulations Mr. President
- Downstater - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:20 pm:
Yes, the committee appointed by the President, who ultimately decides their pay, budgets, etc. has submitted their report on the President’s behavior.
“We could find no fault with Comrade Stalin”. How very impartial of them.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:21 pm:
Please.
- MIDSTATE - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:32 pm:
What a joke. He should be held to the same standard that the people that have been fired were. They didn’t get a mulligan, re-do, or whatever you want to call it.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:35 pm:
SOOooo, the university president’s PHD thesis lifted or improperly cited portions of his master’s and doctoral writings.
And he’ll stay as university president too.
I’m glad my universities have higher standards.
What these morons did was ruin the value of most SIU degrees, didn’t they?
They are as intellectually dishonest as their president.
- Downstater - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:39 pm:
I love the line, “that they would not hold up to today’s academic standards” - as if the standards were looser in 1984.
I was in college in 1984, and the standards were just as strong then as they are today. Making such a ridiculous statement regarding SIU’s past and present standards is a slap in the face of every student from that school who did abide by the rules.
The only standards that are different from 1984, is what the SIU board of trustees is willing to accept in a leader.
- A Citizen - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:42 pm:
Nice to see they didn’t find a need to burn him at the stake. And he’ll have to write the wrong. Man I’d hate to have to go back and rewrite my college work.
- KenoMan - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:57 pm:
Mayor Daley is such a girlie man. He can’t handle ANY criticism without crying. I want a mayor who raises taxes as a last resort, not as a reflex action whenever he pleases.
- Got the t-shirt - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 4:17 pm:
Touche, Downstater. If anything, academic excellence in the ’80s was superior to today’s standards. In SI parlance, “that dawg don’t hunt.”
- archpundit - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 4:36 pm:
===Touche, Downstater. If anything, academic excellence in the ’80s was superior to today’s standards. In SI parlance, “that dawg don’t hunt.”
That’s simply not true. Other than claims of having walked up hills both ways, academic integrity is far greater of an issue in academic settings now than in the past with it being largely ignored before the 1960s. Amongst undergraduates the rate of cheating has stayed stable since the 1960s so there is little evidence that efforts have been cut back and, in fact, honor codes and systematic education efforts have greatly increased since the 1990s.
It has become a significant issue to educate students in more recent years about what appropriate citation and paraphrasing include.
- Downstater - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 4:53 pm:
Archpundit, you’re simply wrong. The importance of citation and plagiarism were instilled in my Southern Illinois Public School when I was in sixth grade (1976).
I do not accept the fact that the standards were any less for the GRADUATE and DOCTORAL Programs at SIU during the same period. If they were, then the SIU degrees from that era should be viewed with a suspect eye - starting with DOCTOR Poshards.
- Playa - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 5:02 pm:
The press attacks the Mayor all the time, why can’t he make a comment about them without a dismissive “whatever”?
- MTP - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 5:08 pm:
I think the difference in tone between the Tribune coverage, and the other outlets, like AP, is just amazing.
Only the Tribune is reporting this as any type of slap at Poshard.
The standards of the time are the standards set by the review committee…period. If it passed muster, and similar works of the same time period, with the same issues, also passed muster, then end of story.
That appears to be what the report found. You wouldn’t know it from reading the Tribune.
Given how they covered Poshard in 1998, one might conclude the Tribune would like to see George Ryan as SIU President.
- True Observer - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 5:42 pm:
Where can you buy those 15 cent stickers Justice Thomas was talking about?
- Decatur Don - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 6:12 pm:
Indeed, the Tribune can’t stop slapping Poshard for everything and anything. They were 100 percent wrong about him and 100 percent wrong about George Ryan in 1998, but for some reason they won’t let up on the guy. He’s 300 miles away and they don’t miss a chance to bash him.
It’s time for the Trib to find another punching bag. How about someone who deserves it this time?
- irishpirate - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 7:17 pm:
Poshard strikes me as one of the more decent and honest politicians in this state. To be pro gun and anti gay and run as a Democrat took guts. I voted for him even though I disagreed with him on social issues. To not run for Congress again and uphold his ten year pledge took honesty.
None of us are perfect. I suspect Glenn Poshard is slightly closer to perfect than most of us. He is certainly better than our current crop of “leaders”.
He screwed up. Catholics may understand the difference between a “venial” and “mortal” sins. His strikes me as relatively small. If you want perfection wait till death. You may view it then. Then again perhaps not.
- Reddbyrd - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 8:08 pm:
Too Bad Vanilla did not mention which university has higher standards
Let’s hope it is not the University of Chiefville.
Their record — from the legacy of Mike White to the dole handed out to Blinky Jim-YouBet-MSI Edgar is very hard to defend. Missing a few attributions does not seem to compare.
What ever happened to the Illinois Sentate?
- FED UP - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 8:10 pm:
Daley needs to admit that a tax hike is unjustifed he has all the money he needs in his huge TIF accounts with little oversite. Daley has added layers and layers of managment jobs to the city payroll in the last 17 years. It is time some of the fat got trimmed. Maybe If daley started hring people based on qualifications instead of who there related to or whos campaign they worked on or donated to we wouldnt have so many do nothing city emmployees.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 8:16 pm:
sorry folks.
daley has officially lost it.
he gone.
- Team Sleep - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 8:51 pm:
I’m glad Poshard is staying in his post. He is a good SIU president and will be a marquee name for the school within the state and nationally. I find him to be quite honest and friendly.
I am, however, somewhat offended at Poshard’s salary. He makes $291,000+, which is a lot. While he’s doing a good job and has a large task, he makes nearly double what the governor makes and more than double what some of our constitutional officers earn.
- Bill - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 8:53 pm:
Big Glenn screwed up by cheating, got caught, albeit 30 years later, and got off because…well, just because he’s Poshard. Its too bad Wendler, the Edwardsville guy, and that hard luck prof didn’t get the same pass. Anyway, SIU students, cheat away. It is an SIU tradition.
As for Poshard, the fact that he is still held in such high esteem downstate says all you need to know about Southern Illinois.
- downstate - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:03 pm:
bill i assume from your comment that your from the big time up North…congrats…why point fingers at the people in southern illinois…they have nothing to do with this…by trying to make fun of others are you trying to make up for what you lack?
- Bill - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:05 pm:
I wasn’t making fun of anyone.
- Bill - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:11 pm:
…and I didn’t steal other people’s material for my dissertation. Us big timers up north are funny that way.
- jon walters - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:16 pm:
This is unbeleavable that Poshard admitted and was proven to plagerize and there giving him a pass. Where is the outrage? SIU alum should stop contributing to SIU and demand an independant group (ISU or UofI) review this fraudulant manuscript (i mean thesis).
- Jon walters - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:20 pm:
Dear downstate, with all due respect, have you met or talked to Rep Brandon Phelps or Sen. Forby or even David Phelps..They don’t represent southern Illinois very intelligently! Again, with all due respect, they sound like backwards hillbillys..Sorry
- A Citizen - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:25 pm:
Bill, kinda slow tonight. My Diploma’s bigger than yours though.
- Bill - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:34 pm:
A,
It was slow in under the dome too. I wish that they would all take a moment of silence…a long moment.
- A Citizen - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:42 pm:
Bill, maybe we should grab the Big Five, put them on Rich’s boat, and leave them in the middle of the lake til they finish this mess or walk to shore on the ice. I think they are simply out of gas, and for them that is something!
- Bill - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:54 pm:
A,
Well, at least those semis won’t be killing as many people in “rural” areas. As you well know, the 55 mph limit is prudently followed by all truck drivers on Illinois interstates.
- A Citizen - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 10:14 pm:
I like it when they run at 75 or 80+ - that way I know the speed traps are not out. Those guys know what they are doing AND they talk to each other. Plus they pay enough in road taxes to earn the “Right”. Heck, they drive like they are legislators!
- In the Sticks - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 10:41 pm:
Plagiarism should not be rewarded - especially for the President of a university. This does nothing to improve SIU’s academic standards, but rather says that academic integrity does not mean as much as political connections. This won’t increase enrollment, average ACT scores or improve the quality of the faculty that can be recruited. It only perpetuates the “party-school”, good-ole boy, who-you-know reputation already in place for SIU.
SIU-E will continue to grow; SIU will continue to stagnate.
- Disgusted - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 11:32 pm:
“…As for Poshard the fact that he is still held in such high esteem downstate says all you need to know about Southern Illinois.”
Hey Bill: Substitute Milarod “my hair is sooo cool” Blagojevice for Poshard and the word Northern for Southern and that says all we need to know about Northern Illinois.
- Disgusted - Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 11:34 pm:
that would be “Blagojevich.”
- Pot calling kettle - Friday, Oct 12, 07 @ 12:00 am:
Jump all over Poshard if you wish, but you are showing your ignorance of the situation. He did not properly cite portions of his lit review, which, by its nature, is not regarded as original work. He will add citiations that meet today’s standards and be done.
The guy that was fired presented someone else’s work as his own. No one claimed Poshard did that; the “infractions” were poorly cited material in a section that was a review of other people’s work.
- Independent - Friday, Oct 12, 07 @ 3:10 am:
If Daley does not get his almighty Olympics he will rue the day he decided not to retire in ‘07.
- Bill - Friday, Oct 12, 07 @ 6:47 am:
Pot,
Was there a “lit review” on his masters thesis where Poshard also stole someone else’s work? This guy is a cheater. He should have been fired.
- Truthful James - Friday, Oct 12, 07 @ 7:49 am:
If Poshard’s quotes were taken from souces listed in his bibliography he stole from nobody.
A review of literature is just that. A thesis is setting forth ideas and reaching after analysis a considered conclusion.
Nowhere has it been written that he lifted analysis thus substituting the work of others for what should have been his original work. Nowhere has it been written that his conclusions were lifted from the work of other people or that the footnotes and quotation remarks in these chapters were not properly done.
His dissertation advisor presents his work to the review committee. His advisor clearly believed his paper was intellectually rigorous and ready for a defense by Poshard at the Committee.
Insofar as the review of the literature section is concerned, its review is done by the advisor and then by the committee as to completeness and as to including alternative points of view. There has been no question as to these matters.
What we are reduced to is not an intellectual question but a formatting question. Why did neither the advisor nor the committee catch these prior to publication? Good question.
- archpundit - Friday, Oct 12, 07 @ 10:52 am:
====#Archpundit, you’re simply wrong. The importance of citation and plagiarism were instilled in my Southern Illinois Public School when I was in sixth grade (1976).
===I do not accept the fact that the standards were any less for the GRADUATE and DOCTORAL Programs at SIU during the same period. If they were, then the SIU degrees from that era should be viewed with a suspect eye - starting with DOCTOR Poshards.
That you had some experience with higher standards does not mean it was common. For example, the student conduct code for the issue was set up in 1991 at SIUC. Asserting that it must be different doesn’t change the actual history.
I don’t know how to explain it any clearer to you, but the standards over citations have improved dramatically since then. It wasn’t until the 1990s that a national movement on the issue was created.
Given the biggest issues were in the lit review, people especially tended to overlook whether something was properly paraphrased or cited because it was understood most of it was a review of the literature.
You can argue all you want about how you had some random experience, but it doesn’t change the history of the issue or how it has evolved dramatically since then.
The fact that it was primarily in the lit review also gives a very different context to whether he was attempting to be dishonest. Lit reviews generally have little in the way of original thought and so it would be the most useless place to plagiarize. It’s very different from the cases where people were plagiarizing in the actual areas related to original thought.