The Harvard Crimson reported its second case of plagiarism in two weeks, according to its online edition Monday. While both the column and cartoons in question were initially intended to be removed from The Crimson's website, as stipulated in a printed editorial note, Crimson President William Marra '07 later acknowledged that the pieces will be kept online with an editorial statement attached.
The Crimson admitted to the first incident of plagiarism in an Oct. 23 editorial after receiving a tip from a reader. In the article in question, an Oct. 16 column entitled "On Our Language," senior Victoria Ilyinsky failed to attribute quotations she found on Slate.com and the website "Literally, A Web Log" to their respective sources.
In the second incident, reported Monday, The Crimson admitted a "noticeable similarity" among cartoons by sophomore editorial cartoonist Kathleen Breeden and those by nationally syndicated cartoonists Walt Handelsman, Stephen Breen and Monte Wolverton. The Crimson subsequently announced the firing of Ilyinsky and resignation of Breeden.
In the printed notes recognizing the errors, The Crimson wrote that Ilyinsky's column would be removed from the website. No statement, however, was made about the availability of the Breeden cartoons.
"The initial decision was to retract [the column]," Marra said. "We're still looking into [the cases] and are going to institute new policies to assure that these issues don't occur again -- they certainly aren't closed cases."
Marra explained that the inconsistency in removing the column but not the cartoons was a logistical shortcoming, asserting that the cartoons would be removed by the end of the day.
By Monday afternoon, The Crimson re-posted Ilyinsky's column on its website in an appended form.
"We thought the most appropriate thing to do would be to keep the articles online and append a note," Marra told The Dartmouth when first contacted. "It's something we're learning as we're doing."
The Breeden cartoons were also available as of press time, but no note had been attached.
Marra noted that The Crimson had been discussing whether or not the removal of the articles was the correct approach.
Some observers have questioned a removal of this nature because newspapers often keep written pieces available as part of a permanent record while appending them with a note characterizing their faults.
Director of the Dartmouth Ethics Institute Aine Donovan said that Ilyinsky and Breeden should be sanctioned by Harvard even though The Crimson is an independent entity. The writers are still students, she said.
"It sounds reasonable to me that you would want to keep things online as part of the published record," Donovan said. "Just to take it offline sort of buries it under the carpet."
The controversy, first reported nationally in The Boston Globe, has consumed the pages of Ivy League focused weblogs.
A Harvard spokesperson and Slate.com spokesperson declined to comment on the matter. Breeden would not return phone calls seeking comment and Ilyinsky could not be reached.