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Poshard begins defending himself

BY SCOTT FITZGERALD, The Southern

Thursday, August 30, 2007 11:33 PM CDT

CARBONDALE - Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard refuted claims made Thursday that he plagiarized parts of a dissertation he wrote as a doctoral student in 1984 and said the anonymous party making such allegations has directly attacked his integrity as an administrator of higher education.

Poshard defended his 24-year-old, 111-page paper during an interview with three members of The Southern Illinoisan news staff. The dissertation, titled "The Provisions for Gifted Children Education from 1977 through 1983 in Twenty-Two Southern Illinois Counties," was called into question when an anonymous source claimed the second chapter of the paper, a review of related and published educational literature, contained passages lifted from other works without proper citation.

He stressed that his personal research in the dissertation was not called into question.

Poshard, providing multiple copies of his dissertation along with a separate document in which the anonymous accuser outlined all alleged instances of plagiarism, said he cited all his sources properly with footnotes. According to the accuser's document, in a point Poshard conceded, Poshard often didn't use quotation marks around the cited material.

That doesn't constitute plagiarism, Poshard said, adding the whole question regarding his dissertation is nothing more than retaliation by a group of people angry over the 2004 firing of SIU Edwardsville professor Chris Dussold, who was let go for allegedly plagiarizing a teaching statement.

"There was no attempt to plagiarize. It's referenced," Poshard said.

He said a majority of the allegedly plagiarized statements concerned material that hadn't been defined with quotation marks. Poshard said anyone who reviewed the dissertation and considered the accusations would conclude he didn't use anyone else's work for personal gain.

Poshard said five of his professors at the time had signed off on the dissertation without a problem. His work was consistent with academic standards at the time, Poshard said. Only one of the professors is still alive, he added.

Poshard's dissertation came under scrutiny Thursday, when SIUC's student newspaper, the Daily Egyptian, reported the accusations.

Mike Ruiz, director of communications for the university, said he subsequently received calls from several media outlets, including the Chronicle of Higher Education.

This incident is not the first time plagiarism allegations have been leveled against a top university official within the last two years. A group calling itself Alumni and Faculty Against Corruption at SIU has alleged plagiarism against both Chancellor Vaughn Vandegrift of Edwardsville and former Carbondale chancellor Walter Wendler, including claims the latter plagiarized SIUC's long-range plan, "Southern at 150," from a similar document he created while at Texas A&M University.

Poshard said the group has raised claims against more than 100 people within the university system, all of which he said he has discarded because the accusers have refused to reveal their identities.

The continued allegations are hurting the university as it is trying to move forward on critical issues, he added.

"It's not about me, but the future of the university. What does this do for our university?" Poshard said.

Poshard is meeting today with SIUC faculty and staff leaders to provide his perspective on the anonymous plagiarism allegations and to seek advice and counsel. He said he will decide later what impact the accusations have on his leadership role at the university.

Poshard said he would openly discuss the accusations, explain his research and dissertation and allow people to make their own decisions about the matter.

"You can't read this and say there was an intent to take credit for another's work," he said.

SIU Board of Trustees Chairman Roger Tedrick, in response to the claims, said the board supports Poshard.

In a prepared statement issued to local media, Tedrick said the board was aware these types of allegations would likely be made public and stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a former employee.

Dussold is suing SIU to get his job back. The anti-corruption group, while not claiming responsibility for this accusation, has made no secret in the past that it supports Dussold.

"Although we take any allegations of this nature seriously, we believe this has less to do with what happened 24 years ago and more to do with current litigation," Tedrick said.

- Caleb Hale and Gary Metro contributed to this article.

scott.fitzgerald.thesouthern.com

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