Archive for November, 2011
Shouldn’t “responsible conduct” mean “no plagiarism”?
by AnonTerp on Nov.08, 2011, under Can you believe that?, Leadership
Robert Spector, a relatively new arrival with the title Vice President for Administrative Affairs, today circulated a memo defining “Principles of Ethical and Responsible Conduct” for all faculty and staff in College Park. Without the supporting references to campus rules, the text of this document is just over 1000 words. You can find it at a web site
http://www.responsibleconduct.umd.edu/.
Please forgive us our cynicism, but scrutinizing documents and divining the meaning of words is something that faculty are supposed to do. We thus sent this campus document through several of the on-line plagiarism checkers (among other checks in vetting), only to have them consistently ding the submission for unoriginal content. (Free services such as http://plagiarisma.net/ are available in case you want to check for yourself, though better for-pay ones are available to us.) And at top of the list of earlier sources? The University of Delaware site
http://www.udel.edu/responsibleconduct/.
And no wonder it got a hit. It is basically the same list of points, with the same nuanced phrases, the same supporting text and for that matter even the same graphic motif on the web site, which by the way does not match standard HTML conventions on other UM sites.
In short, it looks like the University of Maryland statement of Ethical and Responsible Conduct was simply plagiarized from a University of Delaware site. Call up the text side by side and tell us how a reasonable person can reach any other conclusion.
Looking into Spector’s history on this campus, it gets a little more problematic. The campus press releases announcing his arrival here confirm he came from University of Delaware – the same office from which our new statement was lifted. Oops.
How can we possibly talk with our students about intellectual integrity with our leadership setting an example like this?
Specter is listed as Chief Financial Officer for the campus too. One has to wonder if he has a different view of what rules govern ethical behavior in that role as well. Anyone else keeping track of the cash?
