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Key Takeaways
- Indiana University has withheld an independent report investigating plagiarism allegations against President Pamela Whitten for over a year, raising concerns about transparency.
- Whitten's 1996 dissertation reportedly contained plagiarized text in dozens of instances, but the university cleared her of any wrongdoing and has not released the findings of the investigation.
- Experts, including plagiarism consultant Jonathan Bailey, argue that withholding the report is detrimental and that transparency would benefit Whitten and the university.
Indiana University’s withholding of the results of its review into plagiarism allegations against President Pamela Whitten is “deeply worrying,” according to a plagiarism consultant.
For more than a year, the university system has withheld the independent report that looked into the allegations against President Whitten (pictured). Her 1996 doctoral dissertation reportedly “borrowed” language “[i]n more than three dozen instances,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
However, IU cleared her of any wrongdoing and has refused to release the results to journalism outlets, including the Indiana Daily Student.
This “lack of transparency” is concerning to Jonathan Bailey, founder of the newsletter Plagiarism Today. He is also a copyright and plagiarism consultant for CopyByte.
“Generally speaking, I prefer transparency whenever possible,” he said. “While I understand their hesitation, given the current climate and the multiple examples of plagiarism being weaponized for political reasons, I don’t believe anyone is served best by hiding the report.”
“Especially since the story hasn’t faded in over a year,” Bailey said. “Even Whitten herself is likely harmed by it.”
He said he does not know the legality behind withholding the report but said Whitten “could waive those rights.”
“I just don’t think it is in their best interest not to release it,” he said.
The Indiana Daily Student previously reported that “experts disagreed on whether the parts of her work in question constituted plagiarism.”
The student newspaper for the Bloomington campus reported in September that IU has not responded to requests for the review, including public records requests.
The Daily Student did not respond to two emailed requests for comment on the situation in the past several weeks.
The Fix reached out to IU’s Executive Director of Media Relations Mark Bode and Deputy Director Teresa Mackin to ask for further comments on the report. Neither responded after a follow-up email inquiry two weeks later. Bode and the media office regularly ignore emails and phone calls from The Fix.
Multiple open records experts criticized the university’s refusal to turn over documents, including who conducted the investigation and how much was paid for it.
“I would argue that clearing the name of your president with a report that says that the allegations were meritless, logic would lead me to recommend that they release it so that everybody can see that the allegations were meritless and there was nothing to it,” Stephen Key told the campus newspaper. He’s the former executive director and general counsel to the Hoosier State Press Association.
The university said the report is “deliberative” and not part of open records. This claim drew criticism from a school journalism professor.
“I would like to have more information about what they mean by deliberative process,” Professor Anthony Fargo told the campus newspaper “What is the deliberation that is taking place exactly?”
It’s best to be upfront with plagiarism allegations, according to Bailey, the plagiarism expert.
“The lack of transparency is deeply worrying to me, especially since the allegations have at least some legitimacy.”
