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CARBONDALE - Despite publicizing the alleged plagiarism that's put "Southern at 150" in question, Alumni and Faculty Against Corruption at Southern Illinois University contends it will stand behind Chancellor Walter Wendler if he is punished while the nearly 100 other alleged instances of plagiarism the group has found go unchecked.

"We simply want all SIU employees to be treated fairly, equally and consistently in accordance with the university's policies," read a message from AFACSIU leader Tyson Giger Monday.

Giger, an SIU-Edwardsville alumnus who started the group with others to support the court case of a former professor fired for plagiarizing in 2004, stated he has knowledge of nearly 100 pieces of allegedly plagiarized work split almost evenly between faculty and administrators in the university system.

Such instances, Giger said, "are clear with respect to SIU material being taken from other sources." He added when someone in AFACSIU suspects they've found something, the document is reviewed by several people for confirmation.

AFACSIU members last week handed over evidence to the Chronicle of Higher Education they say shows Southern at 150 ? the Carbondale campus' long-term plan to become a top 75 research university ? comes largely from a similar plan Wendler implemented as an administrator at Texas A&M University at College Station in the late 1990s.

Giger said the group in the past tried to quietly bring their concerns to university officials, but ?"when members of AFACSIU have tried to show some of their findings to the SIU administration, nothing was done. Things were only addressed after we sent the material to the press."

Giger cited an incident last year in which they told SIUE's student newspaper about a dean that had plagiarized his welcome message, after the administration failed to act. Only then, he said, the dean's message change.

"SIU is our investment. It is on our resumes. SIU needs to take these issues of academic integrity seriously and not on an ad hoc basis," Giger said in his message.

President Glenn Poshard declined to comment when asked about the tactics AFACSIU is employing. He had previously said he wouldn't comment until a panel he appointed to review the Southern at 150 allegations completes its investigation.

Carbondale linguistics professor Joan Friedenberg, who last week went to Poshard seeking amnesty for anyone who had plagiarized ? including the SIUE professor Chris Dussold, issued a statement over the weekend, which said she had warned the president AFACSIU might take dozens of alleged plagiarism instances public.

"Treating each on a case-by-case basis will result in a protracted public relations disaster for SIU, while destroying the careers of many good people who made mistakes," Friedenberg's statement read. "I still believe that showing compassion by means of a general amnesty would have been the most reasonable approach, an approach exhibiting fairness, ethics and integrity. That approach would have shown Poshard and SIU to be leaders in addressing a problem that continues to damage universities and careers throughout the country."

Wendler authored both the SIUC and Texas A&M plans

Chancellor Wendler continued to decline to comment Monday on the allegations Southern at 150 plagiarizes Texas A&M's "Vision 2020," but officials on the Texas campus said Wendler's chief assignment as executive assistant to the university president at the time was to create a long-range plan. He worked on the initiative after a 1997 proposal by then-President Ray Bowen to make Texas A&M one of the top 10 public universities in the nation by the year 2020.

Lane Stephenson, a spokesman for Texas A&M, wouldn't go into specific details surrounding the allegations against Wendler.

"It's something we don't have any direct comment on, but certainly we confirm he was the coordinator," Stephenson said.

The influence Vision 2020 had on the formation of Southern at 150 is apparent when comparing the final reports. Both plans hold goals for their respective universities to attain a certain rank by a certain date (top 10 by 2020 in Texas A&M's case and top 75 by 2019 for SIUC). Both plans set up peer institutions for the university to measure itself by. Both plans also have similar emphases on teaching, strengthening graduate programs, enhanced undergraduate experiences and increasing the university's knowledge resources.

Timothy Dodd, the executive director of Duke University's Center for Academic Integrity, said since all universities can be assumed to want to provide the best services for students there will be overlapping themes in strategies.

"Sometimes there are just exemplary documents out there that institutions would be flattered to know were adopted to serve a purpose at another institution," Dodd said. "I think what was unusual here is the fact elements were copied verbatim from one plan or without the creativity of rewriting and making it clearly pertinent to SIU the elements of that strategic plan."

Dodd said despite the fact Wendler conceived both plans, he may have avoided this problem had he made it more clear where the ideas for Southern at 150 originated from.

"I see this as poor practice and in need of some more overt disclosure in the source material for some of the text, but I don't see it as holding the same weight as claiming personal authorship over plagiarized material," Dodd said. "It's not for anyone's head to roll, but it's a reminder of the basic courtesy and graciousness that should operate in higher education circles. We should be acknowledging where we find prior documentations and prior writings that are helpful to our current effort."

The SIUC three-person panel President Poshard appointed to review allegations against Wendler will have the responsibilities of (1) reviewing both Southern at 150 and Vision 2020, (2) providing a forum for responses from both Wendler and AFACSIU, (3) to review current board of trustees policy on plagiarism and (4) submitting a written report to Poshard about its findings. The panel will make no decision regarding employment action against or for Wendler.

Panel members are Paul Simon Public Policy Director Mike Lawrence, SIUC zoology department chair William Muhlach and SIU law school associate dean Wenona Whitfield.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

(618) 529-5454 ext. 5090