Chancellor subject of UNLV philosophy professor’s satirical protest

A UNLV professor began the bureaucratic process of dealing with a student who had plagiarized and got mad.

He was asking for a student be held accountable while, in his opinion, the chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education was getting away with the same academic sin.

In his frustration, James Woodbridge, an associate professor of philosophy, decided to adapt the “alleged academic misconduct report” instructors fill out for students for the chancellor.

He sent it to some friends. They had a good laugh.

That was before a Feb. 3 email went out to University of Nevada, Las Vegas faculty warning them not to use the work of others without permission.

It prompted Woodbridge to send the form he recently had filled out as a joke to the UNLV Office of Student Conduct, which processes academic misconduct reports.

Woodbridge said he knows the student conduct office has no power over the man charged with overseeing the state’s higher education system. He intended his action as a satirical protest.

“Think of it as a case of performance art,” Woodbridge said Feb. 3. “I was just like, ‘Screw you guys. You’re threatening us, and you’re quoting NSHE’s policy about not tolerating this? Are you serious?’ ”

The Review-Journal reported in December that the Nevada System of Higher Education lifted large parts of an early draft of a Brookings Mountain West report word for word, scooping researchers on their work. Brookings Mountain West is a partnership between UNLV and the public policy nonprofit Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Klaich gave explanations that contradicted his own emails and the explanation given by the Nevada System of Higher Education employee who presented the report to a legislative committee without attribution.

Brookings’ final report ended up being slightly different than what was copied. As a result, both pitches for creating a multimillion-dollar grant program will face off in the Legislature.

After the news broke, Brookings Mountain West published a statement saying the think tank wanted to move on despite its emails showing concern about how the higher education agency had treated its work and those who spoke about the incident’s potential chilling effect on future research.

In December, Board of Regents leaders released a statement saying that there would not be an investigation into the issue and that everyone’s focus should be on creating good policy.

The matter ended there as far as most Nevada higher education officials were concerned despite students and faculty who continued asking for answers.

In response to inquiries for this story, the Nevada System of Higher Education sent a news release Friday saying the agency’s attorney had reviewed the matter and determined there is “no factual or legal basis for the allegation of plagiarism.”

That still didn’t cut it for Woodbridge.

“You don’t ask lawyers to determine if something is plagiarism,” he said.

“If they don’t think that what happened here was plagiarism, they have a sophomore’s or a freshman’s understanding of what constitutes plagiarism, which is woefully inadequate.”

Woodbridge tells his students plagiarism is the worst thing someone can do in academia because it is both cheating and stealing.

“How can we apply any sorts of standards with our students and be hardasses with them?” Woodbridge said. “I read them the riot act on this.”

UNLV’s “alleged academic misconduct report” forms have several boxes for the instructor to check regarding the incident.

Under proposed academic sanctions, Woodbridge checked: “Failing grade for class,” crossing out the word “class” and writing in “job.”

Under requested conduct sanctions, Woodbridge checked: “Reflection Letter of Understanding,” “Academic Integrity Seminar” and “Expulsion.”

And under a section describing how the student reacted when the issue in question was brought up, Woodbridge checked a box indicating “a violation occurred with the student not admitting responsibility and requesting a hearing.”

Klaich said the report had been taken word for word when asked about the issue in December but denied plagiarism had happened, saying, “You don’t plagiarize when you identify the author.” The Nevada System of Higher Education added a notation to the copied report after Brookings asked for credit. It said the report was based on a framework and study provided by Brookings. Word-for-word language remained.

“When my students double down like that, I not only fail them for the course I also suggest that they get thrown out of the university,” Woodbridge said. “If Dan Klaich doesn’t understand what plagiarism is, then why is he in the position of running higher education? He’s not qualified.”

Woodbridge said other faculty members are still outraged but that he doesn’t know how many of them feel free to speak out as he does. Woodbridge has tenure.

“I’m still pissed off about it, and I don’t want the faculty to forget and not be mad about it anymore,” Woodbridge said. “It’s largely a matter of principle, and I just find this kind of stuff intolerable.”

Contact Bethany Barnes at bbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Find her on Twitter: @betsbarnes.