According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Scott D. Miller, the President of Wesley College in Delaware, has been accused of plagiarizing two entire documents. One is Wesley College's statement of management philosophy, which is reported to be identical to that of Samford University in Alabama except for the substitution of Wesley for Samford and College for University. President Miller maintains that he inherited the statement from his predecessor and is not responsible for its creation. The other document is an essay entitled "The Liberal Arts: Solving the 'Practicality Gap'," which is reportedly identical to a one section of a 1997 essay by Richard H. Hersh, then the president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. No explanation for this one has yet been offered.
Miller is a repeat offender: in 2000 he was found to have plagiarized a speech on multiculturalism, an incident also reported on by the Chronicle. Apparently, if you're a 19 year old student there's a huge hue and cry over less than 1% of a novel, but if you're a university president copying entire speeches and essays verbatim is okay.
Posted by Bill Poser at May 6, 2006 06:17 AM