Quick Takes: April 23, 2009 – Inside Higher Ed

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Jacksonville State President Accused of Plagiarism

A lawsuit has accused William Meehan, president of Jacksonville State University, of plagiarizing portions of his dissertation. The Associated Press reported that a Jacksonville State professor is suing Meehan in a dispute over ownership of a collection of plant samples, and included the plagiarism charges to establish a pattern in which Meehan is alleged to take work produced by others. The AP reviewed the dissertation and the work supposedly copied and found similarities. Meehan has denied wrongoing, and the University of Alabama — which awarded Meehan’s doctorate — announced that it was satisfied that the doctorate was legitimate. Two years ago, Meehan admitted that newspaper columns published under his name in the local newspaper contained writing that was lifted from Web sites, but a former university staff member took responsibility for the copying (emphasis added).

via Quick Takes: April 23, 2009 – Inside Higher Ed.

I take from this story a few items:

• If you outsource any part of your dissertation (read the last sentence again), then at least Google or TurnItIn to check for their accuracy–it is your name that gets the degree
• If you caught with plagiarized material, you have to write a new dissertation.