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>From: <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum"
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>References: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #7574 LangLab director with "fraudulent" PhD
>Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 15:38:43 -0500

My Suggestion?  Put her on as adminstrator or staff. I myself may be one of
the few Civil Service staff lab directors with a BA. We at NEIU used to have
PHD professors run it in the 1970s.  The school found it was cheaper to hire
staff. I personally know my five predecessors who moved on to other
administrative or academic persuits.

We are a small instituition less then 13K students but it seems to work and
I am satisfied enough to be here for almost 12 years.

Some campuses call such people academic support professionals. If your
institution can manufacture a budget and position then it will kill the
"plagarism case". Of course in my case I am not part of any teaching faculty
for obvous reasons (BA only). The school gets off cheap so no one has ever
thought it was any other way.

Got a BA in Secondary Ed French teaching but never looked back once I got a
job in the "alma mater".

Just a thought.
Tom Griffin
Northeastern Illinois University FL Lab
----- Original Message -----
From: "LLTI-Editor" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 3:12 PM
Subject: #7574 LangLab director with "fraudulent" PhD


> --- Forwarded Message from Nina Garrett <[log in to unmask]> ---
>
> >Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 11:27:09 -0400
> >To: "'Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum'"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> >From: Nina Garrett <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: LangLab director with "fraudulent" PhD
>
> Hi all --
>
>          This is in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education, for which
> "Ms. Mentor" writes a regular column.   The tone of the letter of inquiry
> irritates me very much indeed*, but I think Ms. Mentor's advice is at
least
> thoughtful and humane.  What do you think?
>
>          Best,
>                  Nina
>
> *  e.g., phrases like "she does what we don't want to -- she runs the
> language lab" and "We suspect that the dean and other administrators
> already know, but don't want to be bothered" and "if we get rid of her, we
> may wind up with someone"  ... etc.
>
>
> A Fraud and a Great Teacher
> Ms. Mentor
>
> Words of wisdom about academic culture
>
> Question: My colleague "Phoebe" is a fraud, and the rest of us in the
> department have known it for years. Her dissertation, which she claimed
was
> original work, is actually a translation of another scholar's dissertation
> in an obscure language, with a few extra pieces thrown in.
>
> But no one confronts Phoebe, because she does what we don't want to -- she
> runs the language lab. She also does it superbly, serving as a mentor to
> countless students. Still, she doesn't have an honest Ph.D., and some new
> colleagues believe we ought to expose her to somebody -- her grad school,
> our department chair, our human resources staff, our dean, the local
> sensationalist paper....
>
> We suspect that the dean and other administrators already know, but don't
> want to be bothered. She's now coming up for contract renewal -- but if we
> get rid of her, we may wind up with someone who won't run the language lab
> so conscientiously and cheerfully. Sometimes we think we should just
> continue our silence, since we don't have tenure, and the only reason to
> speak out is for Justice and Fairness, things that we've seen don't exist
> anyway.
>
> Answer: Ms. Mentor hears a chorus of her readers bellowing: "Fire Phoebe!"
>
> After all, if Phoebe is a vile plagiarist, and if we condone such academic
> dishonesty, we are violating the most sacred canons of truth and original
> inquiry and throwing offal on the ivory tower.
>
> But....
>
> Phoebe does her job magnificently, and the world of language teaching
needs
> Phoebes to inspire students. Would an outsider with a pristine Ph.D. do
better?
>
> Ms. Mentor, in her perfect wisdom, sees two competing ethical systems in
> your letter. One is the role of rules in academe, the abstract absolutes
> that are supposed to govern our lives. The other is the ethic of care for
> others, the responsibility to students. (Scholars of ethics will recognize
> these competing beliefs from Carol Gilligan's A Different Voice, as well
as
> Portia's speech on justice and mercy in The Merchant of Venice.)
>
> If Phoebe is fired, the rule-mongers will be satisfied -- but students
will
> lose.
>
> And yet, can you simply ignore what you know about Phoebe's dissertation?
>
> You already have. Stringent academics might view you and your colleagues
as
> accessories, handmaidens to a coverup. If you do decide to denounce her,
> how can you explain your silence in the past? And won't the bad publicity
> make your dean very, very angry? And if your dean is the punitive sort,
and
> you come up for tenure...?
>
> By now Ms. Mentor's readers are frothing and fuming in all directions. She
> urges them to sit down, have a cold drink, think deep ethical thoughts,
and
> ponder parallel situations.
>
> Jayson Blair, for instance, famously fabricated stories in The New York
> Times, misleading his readers about the Washington-area snipers, Jessica
> Lynch, and much more. He was fired, as were his bosses.
>
> Meanwhile Quincy Troupe, named as the first poet laureate of California,
> was discovered not to have the college degree that he claimed -- though he
> had published 13 books and served as a mentor to hundreds of budding
> writers. He was fired as poet laureate.
>
> Ms. Mentor agrees that Jayson Blair should have been bounced, but wonders
> about Quincy Troupe, 62 years old, with decades of accomplishments. Did a
> degree matter at that point? Why didn't his undergraduate college simply
> award him an honorary degree?
>
> She returns now, more calmly, to creative solutions for Phoebe and the
> colleagues who know that her dissertation is less than original, but who
> value her contributions to teaching.
>
> Phoebe is not exactly a plagiarist. She is an appropriator. Since her
> degree is in foreign languages, a field where translations are acceptable
> dissertation topics, it could be said that her dissertation is merely
> mislabeled. Instead of calling it an original piece of work, she and her
> committee should have called it a translation with commentary. Ms. Mentor
> wonders if Phoebe's graduate school would be amenable to such a labeling
> change.
>
> Meanwhile, Phoebe's job may also be mislabeled. Since language-lab
> coordinators are not always required to hold Ph.D.'s, perhaps the job
could
> be readvertised as a master's-level position. Phoebe would then qualify as
> an outstanding internal candidate.
>
> Ms. Mentor, with infinite tact, rarely tells people what they must do. But
> she insists that they consider alternatives, and envision where each path
> will lead them. Often what seems to be the path of righteousness is also
> the path of shooting oneself in the foot.
>
> Phoebe has made a mistake, but she may very well be a sinner worth saving
> for a higher good.
>
>
>
> Nina Garrett, Director
> Center for Language Study
> Yale University
> P.O. Box 208349
> New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8349
> Tel: (203) 432-8196
> Fax. (203) 432-4485
>
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.cls.yale.edu