Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Wendler lifted passages - check Caleb Hale holding feet to the fire.

Here is the piece from "The Southern." Here is The Southern's link to the full report.

"Failure to do so raises questions about the intellectual honesty of all involved with the final editing and drafting," the report said.
This doesn't sound good. Questions of honesty? I really like Uncle Walt's quote -
"When I think of lifting, I think of something being stolen, and you can't steal what's already yours," Wendler said.
Maybe work is different for university people, but I think those words belong to his former employer. For example, I can steal from my former employer by using documents I wrote or inventions I patented while I was there, that is how employment works. Just because you aren't sued doesn't mean it isn't wrong.

Check this passage -
When asked whether anything in the report released Tuesday was grounds for Wendler's dismissal, Poshard said no.

However, both administrators were a little more elusive when asked whether the chancellor's days at SIUC may be numbered, regardless of the plagiarism allegations.

Early last week, Wendler and Poshard each were denying rumors the chancellor had resigned.

Wendler maintained Tuesday rumors about his resignation or impending leave are just rumors.

"There has been no pressure for me to resign," he said.

Asked if he suspected he would be asked to leave soon, Wendler responded: "You're asking me to speculate about things that I can't speculate about."
There might be no pressure to resign, but is he going to be fired? Of course, he can't be fired just demoted to being a professor.
While nothing publicly has been said by either Poshard or Wendler, the committee's report hints it experienced some difficulty compiling some information in its investigation because of possible tensions between the offices of the president and the chancellor.

The committee noted in the general observations and comments section of its report the sequence of events recounting the drafting and production of Southern at 150 "is contradictory and inconsistent."

The report attributes part of the problem to people's memory but also indicates trouble may have come due to the "seemingly strained relationship among the office of the president, the office of the chancellor and other senior administrative offices."
I think there is a special spot in heck where people get sent to work for someone they fired in the past. Wendler has the double whammy, his results are bad and he pushed Poshard out when he used to be his boss (at least, it sure looked like Poshard wasn't ready to "retire" from service to SIU when he left). You have to assume there is bad blood.

Good job Caleb, ask those hard questions.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would agree with your take on this. Until I saw the report today in the SI I thought the rumors about Wendler getting canned were just so much bullshit. But now, I really think he's fucked. And Poshard is going to enjoy every second of it.

PeterG said...

I wonder if Wendler has figured out that he might have spent some money on fixing up Quigley Hall (the old Home Ec. building for you out of towner's) yet? Next year he is likely to be teaching there and that building has so much deferred maintenance it isn't funny.

This building needs to have it's deferred maintenance done before any of the Saluki spends 150 stuff.

Anonymous said...

Word around the campus (from outside of my department) is that there are other parts of Southern @ 150 that have been plagiarized. The parts that were allegedly taken were not written by Wendler, but by other administrators. Why hasn't Poshard done anything about this? I did some checking in the places that were mentioned, and sure enough, there was text identical to other schools (not Texas A&M). Wouldn't this look horrible if the media got wind of this? How can Poshard fire Wendler if the President's office knows that other administrators have plagiarized in the same document (maybe Poshard doesn't know). Also, Wendler keeps saying that you can't plagiarize yourself. I would fail a student if he/she submitted all or parts of the same paper twice. I would suggest that he look up self-plagiarism. Of course, this is the guy who made a reporter look up the definition of plagiarism in a dictionary.

Anonymous said...

Then they won't have Wendler to kick around and everyone will be listening to Poshard natter about how plagiarism isn't plagiarism when it "isn't for personal profit," blah, blah. I suppose Poshard might shake things up but call me cynical -- he played it safer than safe as a pol, why will he change?

Anonymous said...

Poshard is a bigger weasel than Wendler, sadly.

PeterG said...

> Poshard is a bigger weasel than Wendler, sadly.

Wendler is likely a better human being then any of us, if there is a heaven he thinks he is acting in a way that will get him there. I can't say that I agree with his actions, he seems to act as if everyone else is beneath him. The problem is that Walt doesn't seem to care if he wins on this Earth. He has little idea of how to manage anyone. He clearly knows the Bible well, but doesn't read management or leadership books.

Poshard on the other hand is a different thing all together. He like to win. He knows how to lead. He is charming in person and can play rough. Is he a weasel, I bet he can be if he feels you need to be moved so he can win.

Now, who would you like to have as your leader? The ineffective future saint or the bare knuckled Illinois politician who likes to win? Personally, I like to win.

Anonymous said...

I think the real sin in Southern at 150 is not so much what was borrowed but what was discarded. The people who thought they wrote a section of the document tell me they don't recognize their section at all.

I wonder if the "contradictory and inconsistent" remark in the committee's report is an indication that people's contributions were received and then shitcanned, replaced by "lifted" chapters.

And I'm with you, Peter - if there's any hope for this place, his name is Glenn.