College President Regrets Having Lifted Remarks From a Forwarded E-Mail Message
by Denise K. Magner
The president of Hastings College has been accused of plagiarism in a speech he delivered on "What Matters Most to Me and Why." Richard E. Hoover acknowledged lifting some of his remarks from a forwarded e-mail message, but said he was not guilty of plagiarism because that involves intent, and he didn't know who had written the original message.
Mr. Hoover gave a talk on February 9 before 25 to 30 students, professors, and administrators at the Nebraska college, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. The speech was part of a brown-bag lunch series sponsored by the Presbyterian Campus Ministry.
In his talk, Mr. Hoover listed five elements important to life -- work, family, health, friends, and spirituality -- and then offered a list of 12 don'ts, such as "Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others." His words sounded familiar to a student at the meeting, who contacted the college's student newspaper, the Collegian, to investigate.
The five elements of life and 12 don'ts turned out to have been part of a speech written by Bryan Dyson, who has been identified as a former executive of the Coca-Cola Company. A search on the World Wide Web turns up more than a half-dozen sites where his remarks have been posted.
Mr. Hoover said he used the e-mail message he had received as a framework for his talk, and filled in the blanks with his own personal observations and experiences. "The e-mail had no attribution whatsoever," he said. "I'm sure it was sent to hundreds of people. I figured it was in the public domain." In hindsight, Mr. Hoover said, he realizes that he could have avoided the entire controversy by simply acknowledging that his remarks were taken, in part, from an e-mail message he had received. "It never crossed my mind at the time that that was what I should have done," he said.
Excerpt from Denise K. Magner. "College President Regrets Having Lifted Remarks From a Forwarded E-Mail Message." The Chronicle of Higher Education,
22 Feb. 2000. <https://www.chronicle.com/article/College-President-Regrets/106107> accessed 22 Feb. 2000.