Deja vu

The day after convocation Charles Lachman, assistant professor of art at the College, noted striking similarities to the convocation speech delivered by Student Assembly president Scott Evans '88 and a Harper's magazine reprint of a speech by Arthur Danto, a professor at Columbia. Lachman sent a letter to President Freedman and Dean Edward Shanahan outlining his concern.

Many of the ideas expressed by Evans were paraphrased from the Danto speech and the single attribution Evans gave Danto was located at such a point in the text that many listeners believed the ideas expressed belonged to Evans. The Committee on Standards decided Evans did not violate the College's Academic Honor Principle.

Another allegation of improper attribution made the papers shortly after the Evans incident. This one involved E. Gordon Gee, president of the University of Colorado, and President Freedman. In March of last year Gee gave a speech that included four remarks from a Freedman speech that had been reprinted in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Gee did not name Freedman as the source of the remarks. The Colorado president blamed the oversight on his speechwriter.

President Freedman himself is unlikely ever to be accused of plagiarism; the written texts of his speeches are footnoted in proper academic style.