Public Statement from President Lee Higdon

The alleged plagiarism of the 2009 student Commencement speech was clearly within the scope of Connecticut College’s Honor Code. The restrictions on our ability to speak fully and openly about this case stem not from the Honor Code, but from the federal laws known as FERPA, which protect the privacy of student records. Our choices about how to handle this situation were based on fulfilling what we felt to be the College’s ethical obligations, while still respecting our legal obligations under FERPA. We fully anticipated that our choices would bring the matter to public attention and that we would be, as we are now, faced with questions about the disposition of the case that we cannot legally answer.

As soon as we became aware that parts of the student speech were virtually identical to a previously published speech by Barbara Kingsolver, I wrote to inform Ms. Kingsolver. I extended my apologies on behalf of the College community for the apparent misappropriation of her work. I explained that all aspects of students’ academic and social behavior are governed by our Honor Code, and I assured her that we would investigate and pursue the incident fully through the College’s judicial process. I told her that we had removed the speech from the College’s Web site and would issue a correction in the College’s magazine, where the student speech had been quoted. All these actions have been taken.

In her gracious response, Ms. Kingsolver expressed her sympathy and her confidence that this unprecedented incident was not representative of the quality of education and students at Connecticut College. At her request, we provided her with a copy of the student speech. She did not, as far as I know, choose to make the incident public, although that would have been her prerogative.

Respecting the student’s right to privacy, I cannot comment in any way on how this case was handled by our judicial system. However, speaking in general terms and without specific reference to this case, I want to assure the College community that we take every allegation of academic dishonesty very seriously and that appropriate sanctions are applied when it is found to have occurred.