HNN asked Bryan Le Beau for a statement regarding allegations that he plagiarized part of a commencement address from Cornell West. This was his response on June 14, 2005:
This is not a case of plagiarism in that there was not intention of deceiving anyone. The controversy focuses on my commencement remarks offered at the December 2003 UMKC ceremony. I had only just begun as dean. I received the assignment quite late and scrambled to get it done. The result was serious error.
The topic I chose was important to me professionally, and it was a topic on which I had gathered some information already for a possible talk to my faculty. Among the materials were several good quotes, almost all of which I used in the brief 8 to 10 minute talk. To a certain extent I was hoping to impress upon the students that there was nothing radically new about what I was saying -- that there was widespread consensus on it.
I don't recall where I got Cornel's quotes. As they were just quotes, I suspect he was quoted somewhere, and I clipped them. They were excellent. When all of this controversy surfaced, I was told that the passages came from a commencement address he gave about 13 years ago. I believe I attributed nearly all of the quotes when I delivered my oral remarks -- I say believe because I no longer have the copy from which I delivered my remarks. That text was marked up with various references, etc. in the margins, and I tossed it when I was done. But it may well be the case that I excluded Cornel's name.
Following the event, I received several requests for some of the quotes that I used in the talk. I decided to add it to my newsletter, which I believed was sent out only a listserv to my faculty. I did not know it was accessible from the internet. It was certainly not written with publication in mind and not prepared for that purpose -- no footnotes, etc. And, it is the case that I did not attribute Cornel's quotes -- or paraphrases -- to him.
That was a serious mistake on my part, and I have apologized to Cornel West for it. But I had no intention of denying Cornel credit; it just fell through the cracks. I am not excusing my mistake. It is a lesson well learned and that I hope others will learn before they too get into difficulty.
by HNN on June 14, 2005 at 6:10 PM