Staff Editorial: Goodwin no role model

Today, Doris Kearns Goodwin will, under the auspices of the Fox Leadership Program, address the University community on "The Essence of Leadership."

For those who have not heard of it, the Fox Leadership Program was founded in 1999 to "promote effective speaking, enhance intellectual understanding, and engage real-world challenges." In essence, it hopes to teach Penn students to be leaders.

Without question, Goodwin has had an impressive career. The bestselling author and one-time journalist has served as an advisor to President Lyndon Johnson. She has also taught at Harvard.

But in light of the recent plagiarism scandal involving Goodwin, in which she admitted improperly citing fellow historian Lynne McTaggart in her 1987 book The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys, it is clear that she is in no position to serve as a role model for Penn students.

Her integrity is further tarnished by the manner in which she dealt with her misdeed. Rather than publicly admitting her mistake, Goodwin did everything she could to keep it quiet. She changed her preface, but left its original date. She footnoted the passages she took from McTaggart, but did not put them in quotation marks.

We understand that Penn does not intend to honor her for her academic misdeeds but for her many laudable accomplishments. Still, by having her speak at all, the University and the Fox Leadership Program implicitly condone her actions.

What's more, the speech comes at a particularly inappropriate time. Over the last few years, the University has worked tirelessly to educate its students about the importance of academic integrity. This year was the first in which Penn requested that incoming freshmen sign a pledge agreeing to follow the precepts found in the University's code of academic integrity.

Even more, the debate over Stephen Ambrose's alleged plagiarism of History Professor Thomas Childers' book The Wings of Morning brought the issue home, raising questions about what is and what is not acceptable in academic work.

Having Doris Kearns Goodwin speak at Irvine Auditorium is no way to answer that question.

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