More on Plagiarism
At CounterPunch.Org, Lawrence R. Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, explores past incidents of plagiarism at Harvard and their various unsatisfying resolutions.
In his conclusion, he brings up Harry Lewis and his forthcoming
Excellence Without a Soul, writing that...
Harry Lewis is surely right in saying that, in searching for Summers' successor, the Harvard Corporation, the university's highest governing board, should not be "distracted by superficialities -- candidates' gender, celebrity, and manners, for example." He surely is equally right in saying that Harvard "must find a way to honor good character in our faculty members and to penalize acts that call a professor's character into question."
Meanwhile, I thought this letter in today's Harvard Crimson, on the subject of KV's plagiarism, was a provocative contribution to a delicate area: whether there is a relationship between KV's ethnic/cultural background and her plagiarism.
According to Sampathkumar Iyangar—who seems to be a "writer and activist based in Ahmedabad"—
It is not at all rare in India for parents to do school work of their children. When the project is found to be beyond their caliber, they resort to engaging professionals for the purpose.... The practice is particularly rampant among offspring of “chosen ones”—politicians and employees of giant state-owned corporations, high-profile government officials, and figures at prestigious public sector institutions.Gradually, there has been a drastic decline in moral values in India to the point where no value is attached for originality or creativity. Naturally, every other movie produced in India is an unabashed rehash of a Hollywood chart buster. Complete sequences are lifted with no semblance of any acknowledgment to the original. The government routinely confers national honor on directors, actors, and editors of such “clever” creations of art. Until, hopefully soon, globalization corrects the situation, claims of “literary prodigies” of Indian origin will have to be verified and re-verified a thousand times.
Interesting. I wonder what
Harold and Kumar would have to say on the subject?
