University of South Carolina President Admits to Plagiarism in Commencement Address

Disclosure: The University of South Carolina is my alma mater. I was graduated from there in 2002 but have not had any involvement with the school since then. President Robert Caslen was not the President at my time of attendance.

Update: Caslen has submitted his resignation as the president of UofSC and the board of trustees has accepted it. It went into effect today and the school has announced that former President Harris Pastides will serve as interim president pending a search for a replacement.

Over the past weekend the University of South Carolina (UofSC), like many schools and universities, held their spring 2021 commencement ceremonies.

However, for the UofSC, the ceremonies would become a source of controversy, much of it centered around a speech given by the university’s president, Robert Caslen.

During the speech itself, Caslen flubbed a line and inadvertently greeted the graduates as the newest alumni of the “University of California”. He was also accused of slurring his words and speaking incoherently through parts of the speech.

However, the biggest problem in the speech was yet to be discovered. It would be found on Sunday when the publication FITSNews reported that the speech contained a passage that was plagiarized from a 2014 commencement address at the University of Texas that was given by Admiral William H. McRaven.

Here is Caslen’s Speech:

Know that life is not fair and if you’re like me you’ll fail often. But if you take some risks, step up when times are toughest, face down the cowardly bullies and lift up the downtrodden and never, never give up – if you do those things, the next generation and the generations to follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today.

And what started here – today – will indeed change the world for the better.

Robert Caslen (2021)

And here is the original speech by McRaven:

Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often. But if take you take some risks, step up when the times are the toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up – if you do these things, the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today.

And what started here will indeed have changed the world – for the better.

William McRaven (2014)

Though Caslen changed a few words, it is nearly a verbatim copy. According to The State Newspaper, they ran the speech through four separate plagiarism detection services, and all detected the copying. To make matters worse, nowhere in Caslen’s speech did he mention McRaven or his earlier work, let alone indicate that it was a quote.

In an interview with WIS-10, Caslen acknowledged the plagiarism and apologized for it. He said that, “During my remarks in our weekend commencement ceremonies, I shared a well-known quote from Admiral William McRaven and failed to cite him as its original author and speaker.”

He went on to say that he takes “full responsibility” for the oversight and has offered to hand in his resignation if the school’s trustees ask for it.

This leaves Caslen’s future in a state of uncertainty. Though he’s only been in the position for two years, his tenure was controversial well before he was hired, and these recent missteps have done nothing to help his standing.

A Controversial President

Caslen was hired to the position in July 2019 after a lengthy search for a new president. However, well before he was hired, he was seen as a controversial candidate.

Though a retired three-star general, Caslen does not hold a Doctorate, nor does he hold a background of academic work. Because of this, his appointment was met with literal protests from faculty and students, and he was only hired by an 11-8 vote despite involvement from the state’s governor, Henry McMaster.

Though he did initially win some praise for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school faced one of the nation’s largest surges in cases in fall 2020 after the school reopened.

To further complicate matters, UofSC’s provost and second in command at the school, William Tate, is preparing to leave to become the President of Louisiana State University.

This means that, whatever happens to Caslen next, it must be done with care and with an understanding that the school’s needs come first. Though Caslen is a divisive president with a mixed history that committed a very serious infraction, immediately removing him may not be practical, much less in the best interest of the school.

That said, in an ideal world, Caslen would be held to at least the same standards as the students under his purview. We have to ask, “What would happen to a student accused of the same thing?” and then wonder why the president of the school isn’t held to higher standards.

If the school and its trustees do not take this issue seriously, they risk not only devaluing the prestige of the school, but they risk undermining the confidence and respect of the students that attend it. Why would students take an honor code seriously if their president doesn’t?

An immediate resignation may not be practical, well advised or necessary, but if the school does not respond swiftly, decisively and transparently to this issue, it will hurt the school. That, in turn, will not only harm the current students and faculty, but everyone that passed through their doors in the past.

Myself included.

Bottom Line

Normally, I try to remain dispassionate about these types of cases. However, this one is proving much more difficult for obvious reasons.

Normally, when I discuss the danger of a degree becoming devalued or a school’s reputation suffering due to a plagiarism scandal, it’s hypothetical. This is the first time it’s been my degree and my university. I find myself not just thinking about the potential impacts in the macro sense, but the potential impacts on myself personally.

That’s because this story, in a small way, is about me. It’s about everyone studying at the UofSC, that has studied there, holds a degree from there, has taught there or in any way spent some of their educational career there. In a minor way, Caslen’s actions injured me, retroactively harmed the value of my education and took something from me.

The trustees and the school itself can go a long way to repairing that damage but it cannot be undone.

School administrators, at all levels, have a tremendous burden placed on them. They represent not just the people there, but the people that passed through there. As someone who passed through that school, Caslen did not represent me when he gave that speech. Furthermore, he did not represent the peers I had, the instructors I learned from nor the lessons I was taught.

Whatever happens to Caslen next needs to represent that simple truth. Otherwise, it may not be the truth for much longer.

Header Image: Dfscgt21, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons