Kirkwood President Starcevich reprimanded for plagiarism

The Kirkwood Board of Trustees have officially reprimanded the school's president for plagiarizing a portion of remarks he made during a recent employee recognition event.

The board agreed on the reprimand for President Mick Starcevich, putting a letter about the incident in his personnel file, following a closed discussion Thursday evening that lasted about an hour and a half.

'The board formally expresses its disappointment and concern with President Starcevich's failure to attribute the source of the words he spoke,” according to a motion passed by board members. 'The board affirms its strong and absolute support for academic integrity.”

And yet, according to the motion, the board also acknowledged Starcevich's 'full and prompt acceptance of responsibility” and his 'appreciation of the seriousness of the issues raised by his conduct.”

Starcevich told The Gazette after the meeting that the board's decision to put a letter in his file was 'very appropriate.”

'It was a mistake,” he said, 'and it was not done on purpose.”

Starcevich made the controversial comments Jan. 18, during a speech on Martin Luther King Day, and he promptly apologized to faculty and staff for failing to properly attribute a story he told about a high school counselor who suggested attending community college was not like attending 'real” college.

Starcevich told the story as his own and said he meant to illustrate one of the challenges of community college work. Following the story, Starcevich asked if anyone in the group had heard similar comments, and many affirmed they had.

Later, during his apology, Starcevich said he personally has heard comments like those he described in his story, but 'should not have told the story as if it were my own.”

'I failed to properly attribute my source, which was a New York Times blog article written by Kristin O'Keefe in February of 2015, and for this I am deeply sorry,” he said in his apology.

Starcevich acknowledged the negative impact this comments could have on his reputation and the reputation of the college.

'I trust you understand my goal was to celebrate your work and not to use another person's ideas for personal gain,” he said during his apology. 'Nonetheless, I failed to properly give credit to the original source, and for this I sincerely apologize.”

Kirkwood has an academic and student policy addressing cheating and plagiarism. That policy holds students responsible for authenticating assignment submissions and states an inability to do is sufficient grounds for failing the assignment.

Penalties include failure of an assignment on the first offense, possible failure of a course on second offense, and possible suspension following a third offense.