Dean Vevel on Harvard's Ghostwriting Problem

Dean Velvel just will not stay away from the Harvard ghostwriting story!  For that, we are grateful.  We recommend his excellent post of last week, which you can read here.

Former Tribe Assistant Comments on Ghostwriting Charges

Former Tribe research assistant Michael Dorf (now a law professor) comments on the ghostwriting charges against Tribe and other Harvard figures, here.

Dorf states that"I did not ghost-write anything substantial for Larry's academic projects when I worked as his research assistant.

Two questions readily come to mind:

1.  Dorf is not precise.  What does he mean by "substantial"?  If he drafted 50 pages of a 1000-page book for Tribe, presumably that might not count as "substantial," yet many would regard the absolute volume of writing as involving an unethical amount of delegation of authorial work (absent full disclosure of the delegation).

2.  Are any other Tribe research assistants able to make Dorf's statement?

Blogger on Tribe's Self Parody

The "Self-Absorbed Boomer" blog has some humorous comments about the Harvard Parody treatment of Professor Tribe (which we blogged about here, here, here, and here) and about Tribe's own self parody on his website (which we blogged about here).

Dershowitz's Attack on Finklestein

The Harvard Crimson has had some solid recent coverage of Alan Dershowitz's attacks on Norman Finklestein (who accused him of plagiarism back in 2003), which contributed to Finklestein being denied tenure at DePaul University, here, here and here.

Dean Velvel on Judge Posner on Plagiarism

We strongly recommend this wonderful, long post by Dean Velvel of last week, in which touches on the Harvard plagiarists by noting how little they really suffered on account of the scandals.

Dean Velvel on Dean Kagan

Recently Dean Velvel posted some very negative remarks about Dean Elena Kagan.  Here.

More Plagiarism By Charles Ogletree

The Harvard Crimson recently published an open-and-shut case of Professor Ogletree committing yet more plagiarism in the 2004 book which was apparently ghostwritten for him (at least in part) by students.  Four sentences were lifted, with only minor wording changes, from a 1996 book by University of California professor Roy Brooks.  Story here.  New York Times followup story here.

Not entirely coincidentally, shortly after the Crimson story appeared, a website sprung up fully documenting all the details, including copies of the relevant pages of each book.  It's authored by one "R.O. Denver."  Here. Given the website, we see no need to offer our independent discussion.

Disclosure:  "R.O. Denver" is a pseudonym for a law professor with whom we've corresponded in the past year, and we knew about the tip to the Crimson in advance (indeed, we suggested that Denver contact either the Boston Globe or the Crimson, given their past interest in Harvard plagiarism stories).  For professional reasons the professor must remain anonymous, but the professor has authorized us to state that he or she teaches at a law school somewhere east of the Mississippi and is generally viewed as a political "conservative" (at least by heavily liberal law faculty standards), though that orientation had no role in the professor's decision to provide the tip (according to the professor).

New Harvard Crimson Story

Yesterday's Harvard Crimson has an informative reprise of the Harvard plagiarism/ghostwriting stories.  Here.

Dean Velvel on Dean Kagan

Recently Dean Velvel posted some comments (in the context of e-mails with Harvard professor Howard Gardner) on Harvard president Lawrence Summers leaving -- and on the prospect that Dean Elena Kagan might take his place!  Here.

Confirmation That Tribe's Assistants Wrote "Large Tracts" of His Treatise

Last week Dean Velvel had a long post, of excellent quality as usual, discussing the problem of ghostwriting and addressing yet again the Tribe/Kagan affair as it relates to the "ghost in the room."  You can read it here.

Of particular interest is Velvel's report that he's starting to think we may well be correct in our assertions (in part based on constant talk at the law school) that for years Tribe has been running a ghostwriting operation in which his students or former students draft most of his books and articles:

"I spoke with a professor who told me, fortuitously, that Tribe had asked him to work on American Constitutional Law when he was a student at Harvard Law School, and he knew several people who had done so. (Working for Tribe was, he said, as one would think, a plum job that would lead to recommendations for prestigious judicial clerkships, that would lead to other prestigious jobs, etc.) The people who had worked for Tribe, said this professor, had written large tracts of Tribe’s treatise."

Also, Dean Velvel discusses in the most detail ever the reasons for thinking that Dean Elena Kagan had a conflict of interest when she decided to involve herself in the investigation of the ghostwriting and plagiarism charges against Professor Tribe in connection with his 1985 book God Save This Honorable Court.  The gist of it:

So . . . . it begins to look, does it not, as if the Dean of Harvard Law School, one of the two persons (President Summers being the other) who should have but apparently did not punish Tribe, was one of the participants in what some people think was "in effect a ghostwriting mill" that Tribe ran to prepare the treatise which is one of the main components of his fame. If all this is so, there was no way in hell, was there, that Kagan could have punished him for having had one or more persons ghostwrite (very large?) portions of his book on confirmation of Justices? (It is claimed by some that the book was in effect written for him by a student, and now Democrat politician, named Ron Klain.) I mean, if all this stuff about Tribe running a ghostwriting mill is true, then Kagan was a participant in the ghostwriting machine by which Tribe wrote his treatise (and for all I know may have gotten various jobs partly because of his recommendation(s)). How could a participant in his ghostwriting mill punish him for it?

Oh yes, one could say that Kagan was in a different position than Tribe back in the ’80s. She was a student. She was no doubt eager to win Tribe’s plaudits and approval and get recognition and recommendations from him and to get prominently published thanks from him in his book. One might almost sympathize with her if one didn’t suspect for various reasons that she likely is one of those east coast types, one of those Harvard/Yale types, like the Clintons, for whom she worked, who would run over their grandmothers to get ahead. Regardless, however, how could Kagan punish Tribe for conduct she had participated in? ’Tain’t likely, Jeb.

Recent blog post on Professor Tribe

The blog "StoneHeads," of which we confess we know nothing, has a discussion of the Tribe ghostwriting/plagiarism affair, here.

More Harvard Parody Posts

Several more parody songs have been posted on the Harvard Parody blog (we discussed the initial appearance of that blog here).  They're entertaining and, in our view, quite accurate concerning the substance.  We thank "Frumpy Clown" for his e-mail alerting us to the update, and we look forward to seeing future the Harvard parodists' future efforts.