[Discussion] President of Hamilton College, in N.Y., Apologizes for Failing to Cite Sources in Speech

[Paksoy, Hb]

President of Hamilton College, in N.Y., Apologizes for Failing to Cite
Sources in Speech

CHE
Wednesday, September 25, 2002

   President of Hamilton College, in N.Y., Apologizes for Failing to Cite
Sources in Speech
By JONATHAN MARGULIES

Saying he has "learned a valuable lesson," the president of New York's
Hamilton College apologized last week for failing to cite a number of
sources in a speech he presented to the college's freshman class this month.

The president, Eugene M. Tobin, issued a statement on Friday acknowledging
that his convocation address on September 1 "did not provide sufficient
attribution to all its various sources." He went on to express regret for
his actions, and asked that his colleagues and students use the episode as a
reminder "of the importance of meticulous attribution in everything we do."

In his speech, which focused on the books he had read over the summer, Mr.
Tobin borrowed heavily from editorial descriptions and customer reviews
posted on Amazon.com. The similarities were noted by a pair of Hamilton
professors after Mr. Tobin directed them to the popular Web site following
his speech.

The two professors were not available for comment. But one of them, G.
Roberts Kolb, a professor of music, told The Observer-Dispatch newspaper of
Utica, N.Y., "I think he crossed the line, and in the end, I think he
decided the same thing. I think he got careless."

Mr. Kolb and Peter Rabinowitz, a professor of comparative literature,
compared the text of Mr. Tobin's speech -- which had originally been made
available on Hamilton's Web site but has been removed -- with a variety of
references on Amazon.com. They approached Mr. Tobin soon thereafter with a
list of eight passages that seemed suspiciously similar.

In one instance, for example, Mr. Tobin referred in his speech to a
character in the Elizabeth T. Kennan and Jill Ker Conway novel Overnight
Float. In his speech, he said the character "hopes to find solace and a new
spiritual vocation."

The description of the same novel, posted on Amazon's Web site, noted that
the character "hopes to find solace and a new vocation as the college
chaplain."

Mr. Tobin noted in his statement that he did not ordinarily cite as
extensively in his oral presentations as he would in a written academic
paper. He said, "I intentionally limit internal references, sometimes change
the language, and only occasionally use systematic footnoting and direct
quotations required in formal scholarly work."

In recognition of that flawed approach, Mr. Tobin today will release a
document that explicitly outlines Hamilton's "oral communications
standards," a university spokesman said.

"I think people were both surprised and concerned," said the spokesman,
Michael Debraggio. "But most people who know President Tobin recognize him
as a person of high integrity and recognize this was an unintentional
error."

Hamilton's dean of the faculty echoed Mr. Debraggio's sentiments, noting
that Mr. Tobin's reputation for integrity has helped ease recent discussions
between the president and faculty members.

"The community's reaction has been strongly influenced by the fact that he
showed a tremendous gesture of good-faith integrity by apologizing," said
David Paris, also the college's vice president for academic affairs. "Plus,
he's been a faculty member for 22 years and is real well respected in the
community."

Not every member of Hamilton's faculty, however, agrees that Mr. Tobin's
actions can be excused with a simple apology.

"What bothers me the most about the response from those around President
Tobin has been what is at best disingenuousness," said Thomas Paquette, a
professor of American history. "We had someone from the communications
office saying, in effect, that there has to be intent for plagiarism to
apply. He should know better than that, because it says directly in the
student handbook what plagiarism is."

Hamilton's student handbook refers to plagiarism as "failure to acknowledge
ideas or phrases used in any paper, exercise or project submitted in a
course but gained from another person." It also notes that when dealing with
potential violations, the college's honor court will "not excuse a lack of
awareness or understanding of what constitutes academic dishonesty."

Mr. Paquette said the attention paid to Mr. Tobin's speech among Hamilton
students and faculty members in recent days might affect the president's
continued ability to lead the college.

"You lose moral force when you are caught doing these things," he said. And
if Mr. Tobin's actions do not qualify as plagiarism, they are "perilously
close."