Harvard Plagiarism Archive: "A Question of Honesty": Dean Velvel's Most Recent Statement

Harvard Plagiarism Archive

"[T]he problem of writers . . . passing off the work of others as their own . . . [is] a phenomenon of some significance."
PROFESSOR LAURENCE TRIBE, e-mail to Dean Lawrence Velvel, 9/13/2004

"'I . . . delegated too much responsibility to others . . .,' [Prof. Charles Ogletree] said. 'I was negligent
in not overseeing more carefully the final product that carries my name.' * * * Ogletree told The Crimson that
he had not read the passage of Balkin’s book that appears in his own work. An assistant inserted the material
into a manuscript . . . . But Ogletree said he was closely involved in most of the drafting of the book . . . ."
STEVEN MARKS, "Ogletree Faces Discipline for Copying Text," The Harvard Crimson, 9/13/2004

"'Ronald Klain . . . then only a first-year student at Harvard law . . . spent most of his time with
Tribe working on Tribe's [1985] book God Save This Honorable Court,'" the Legal Times added in 1993.
* * * 'Many of Klain's friends and former colleagues say that he wrote large sections of the book . . . .'"
JOSEPH BOTTUM, "The Big Mahatma," The Weekly Standard, 10/4/2004

"[A]fter several plagiarism scandals broke over distinguished faculty members at Harvard's law school, including
Laurence Tribe,a group of students there set up a blog, Harvard Plagiarism Archive, to follow the University's
handling of the problem. They believe that the University, President Summers, and Dean Elena Kagan
essentially white-washed the scandal and are demanding further action.
PROF. RALPH LUKER, History News Network's "Cliopatria" blog,4/26/2005

“The Tribe and Ogletree matters have catalyzed bitter complaints from Harvard students that the university
employs a double standard. . . . The students have every right to be incensed over this gross double standard.
They in fact ought to raise hell peacefully about it: a constant barrage of letters, emails, statements . . . .”
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, "Velvel on National Affairs" blog, 4/28/2005

"If you want to keep track of this story, I recommend the new Harvard Plagiarism Archive. . . . [I]t's pretty thorough."
TIMOTHY NOAH, Slate's "Chatterbox" blog,9/28/2004

"[Y]ou have done a wonderful service to all by operating the AuthorSkeptics website . . . a fine public service."
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, author of "Velvel on National Affairs," e-mail to AuthorSkeptics, 4/19/2005

Thursday, April 28, 2005

"A Question of Honesty": Dean Velvel's Most Recent Statement

Dean Velvel's most recent statement on what is happening at Harvard was released this afternoon and is posted on his blog, here.

In his statement, Dean Velvel urges those who care about honesty in academia to comment on the decision at Harvard that there will be no punishment for professors who hire students to ghostwrite a publication, even though a student doing the same thing would be severely punished.

Dean Velvel properly emphasizes that one's view of this issue should not depend on whether one is a "liberal" or "conservative" politically. All who care about academics should care about this issue, and should care enough to speak out about it, rather than being complicit with those at Harvard who, for whatever reason, would wish to see the issue swept under the rug.

As a service to our readers, we reprint Dean Velvel's statement in full here, with various links we have added (without consultating with Dean Velvel) which might be of aid to our readers.

April 28, 2005

Velvel on National Affairs and AuthorSkeptics take a close look at:

A Question of Honesty

Colleagues:

Whether one is liberal or conservative in politics, all of us who care deeply about honesty in academic and literary achievement should focus on the plagiarism and ghostwriting which have occurred at Harvard. That plagiarism and ghostwriting have now gone completely unpunished in the Larry Tribe affair.

For better or worse, Harvard often sets the standard. Now its President, Lawrence Summers, has acted in a way that impairs academic integrity: he has in effect declared that there will be no punishment for ghostwriting -- for getting ahead by having others write parts of a book but putting your own name on it as the sole author.

Ghostwriting has become a major problem, including in science (and, we note, in medicine). Judge Richard Posner has said it may sometimes be a fraud, and the phenomenon is analyzed extensively in a recent posting by Dean Lawrence R. Velvel on VelvelonNationalAffairs.blogspot.com. Because of the serious nature of ghostwriting, and the failure of President Summers to punish it even though it lacks integrity, Dean Velvel has called for the dismissal of Summers after the latter’s long series of contretemps.

The comments of Judge Posner and Dean Velvel not only appear on their own blogs, but have also been posted on the website of AuthorSkeptics.blogspot.com.

Dean Velvel and AuthorSkeptics hope that people, whether liberal or conservative, will take the trouble to learn about and comment on this serious issue of basic honesty. To facilitate comments relating to Dean Velvel’s numerous points, AuthorSkeptics have numbered each of his paragraphs on the AuthorSkeptics website. Persons who are willing to comment publicly on ghostwriting can forward their views to Dean Velvel or to AuthorSkeptics for posting. Or people can, of course, comment on their own sites. If people comment on their own sites, we hope they will tell Dean Velvel and AuthorSkeptics that they have done so.

Robert Kent

Administrative Assistant to Dean Velvel

posted by Lawrence R. Velvel at 2:18 PM [4/28/05]

Harvard Plagiarism Archive