Lesson one: If the boss screws up, don't count on a quick fix.
We at the DAILY EGYPTIAN feel some matters are still in desperate need of attention when it comes to SIU President Glenn Poshard's dissertation.
Something tells us it might be awhile before the plagiarism allegations against Poshard are confirmed or waived.
Roger Tedrick, chairman of the SIU Board of Trustees, told the Associated Press that he is "very comfortable with the situation as is."
The board has known about this since 2004, Tedrick said. Experts were employed to investigate the matter, and it was determined plagiarism had not been committed.
Yet according to Mike Ruiz, university communications director, the board simply loaded Poshard's dissertation on the popular plagiarism detection program, Turnitin.com. When the search yielded no matches, they literally closed the book on the case.
What the board failed to consider is that Turnitin.com has only been available for 10 years. More importantly, the books that contain the uncited text found in Poshard's dissertation were published in the 1960s and '70s - long before the Internet.
For these reasons, we begin to question our confidence in the Board of Trustees. What seems like common sense to some has not yet appeared to strike the BOT as relevant.
Perhaps this is one headache the board wants to avoid.
According to the SIU Student Conduct Code, punishment for a student committing plagiarism can range from simply failing an assignment to expulsion. And coming before the Judiciary Committee to determine one's fate is common practice.
We wonder if forming such a committee is a step in the right direction.
It is difficult to overlook the fact Poshard called for a similar action after former Chancellor Walter Wendler fell under fire for lifting parts of a plan he wrote while at Texas A&M University and applying it to Southern at 150, a campaign to make SIUC a top-75 public research institution by 2019. A three-member panel eventually determined Wendler had committed "academic dishonesty."
We at the DAILY EGYPTIAN feel it is only fair that Poshard be subject to the same justice system he deemed fit for another and of similar administrative stature. A committee should be created, preferably with members unaffiliated with SIU.
It might not be a quick resolution, but it certainly is a start.
