"To Be or Not To Be…"

 

In a graduation banquet speech, University of Alberta, Canada, medical school dean Philip Baker used a made-up medical term to illustrate doctors’ insecurity: “The velluvial matrix sounds like something you should know about,” he said, and you never stop wondering what you don’t know, but should. Class president Brittany Barber said some students did know about the velluvial matrix. They reached for their cell phones, searched Google, and found it — in a speech by Atul Gawande to Stanford’s medical graduates a year before.

They were able to follow along from their phones as Baker spoke, but he did not credit Gawande. “Students would be expelled” for such plagiarism, Barber said. “Therefore to fail to do the same for a dean would promote a double standard.” Baker resigned as dean on the provost’s recommendation, but will continue to teach.

A THOUGHT: Professor… try Googling “Integrity”.