After much discussion and discovery, Ohio University is now ready to take punitive action against the College of Engineering alumni who plagiarized on their master's theses. Although this is a good step toward fixing the university's poor reputation, the means by which degrees may be revoked are cause for concern.
At most universities, the Board of Trustees are responsible for the formal revocation of a degree. This also used to be the case for OU. But recently, with Provost Kathy Krendl's backing and the Board of Trustees' approval, President Roderick McDavis will now exercise that power. While the Academic Honesty Hearing Committee will determine individual students guilt and punishment, President McDavis will be the one formally rescinding degrees.
This change seems to be unnecessary and the possibility for mistakes in due process seems great, since it will be only McDavis and not the Board of Trustees revoking degrees. What purpose does it serve to give the president this power, when the board could certainly handle this duty by themselves and the board's action would seem more in line with due process? Or, barring the board, why not let Krendl, as the chief academic officer, handle it? McDavis seems like an odd choice by comparison.
Moreover, McDavis certainly has enough on his plate with trying to restore the integrity of this university and continuously reiterating to any and all media outlets that the negative publicity has not affected enrollment ' not to mention discontented faculty, students who are chafing at an alcohol policy that they had little input in creating, and an athletic department that looked the other way when football players broke the law.
So perhaps there is another reason for giving McDavis the power to revoke degrees. Perhaps it is yet another PR move on the university's part, to show OU and the nation that he in fact does have control of the situation, when all appearances indicate that he and Krendl are out of touch with both students and faculty.
Students who cheated deserve to lose degrees they did not earn. But if McDavis wants to improve his public image, he would do better to proactively confront the many issues facing OU and fight to fix them, rather than ignore problems until they fester and then counter with a public relations campaign.
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Concentration of power endangers due process, moves university closer to a corporate model
