I read with great interest Dean Dennis Irwin's letter published Feb. 18th. As a former Ohio University student and Post associate editor, my tenure spanned the time from when the plagiarism in the college of engineering was discovered up to the time the university finally started to seriously deal with the situation.
That process took nearly two years.
The simple truth of the matter is that the university has mishandled this entire situation from the start. Its response was too slow, too weak and too secretive.
If memory serves me correctly, the first Post story on this subject was in May, 2005. Three years later, Irwin, and other members of the university's administration, still seem to want to quibble about The Post's editorial stance on the issue. But it was not The Post that delayed in addressing the issue. It was not The Post that ignored Tom Matrka when he first brought plagiarism to the attention of the university. It was not The Post that deliberately concealed information from the general public.
Should any student or observer want proof that the university did not act in good faith, all they would need to do is make a public records request for all the university's communications regarding the plagiarism issue (including e-mails sent by and to Irwin) from May 2005 to the present.
The Post did that during my tenure, and although you have to wade through a lot of useless communications, there are documents that dismiss Matrka as crazy, and that explicitly say that officials did not relay information to Post reporters. Now, no university official acted criminally by doing so, but they surely did not act ethically.
Maybe the college's new honor code will work; maybe it won't. But instead of dealing with the issue swiftly and decisively, the university delayed and ultimately failed to handle the problem early on.
Honor codes are all well and good, but you have to consider the source.
It still seems Irwin still wants to place blame where it doesn't belong. He still wants to criticize The Post for reporting on the problems and taking a stance against them. And considering the university's track record during the past three years, they spend more time complaining, making excuses and blaming others.
And where is the honor in that?
Dan Rinderle is an alumnus of Ohio University and former associate editor of The Post.
17 Archives
Letter to the Editor
