Well, I suppose if they were willing to let her prove her sources, yes,  they
could let her do it, but they're not required to.  When I was in grad school,
I double-checked  every reference, and made sure everything was cited
properly and this was in the good ol' days  before word processors that
automatically formatted to allow space for footnotes.  So I'm not in much
sympathy with a person who uses a disability as an excuse to not do her work
properly.  If nothing else, she should have asked the school to help her find
a student who would have been willing to help her with such things for pay.

It sounds harsh, I know but communication is a two-way street, you know and
she is just as culpable in this as they.

Kat

On Wednesday 01 September 2004 9:57 pm, Tamar Raine wrote:
> seems to me she should be allowed to rewrite the papers with proper
> attributes. and, if she is believed to be plagiarizing, those teachers
> should prove it, where it was from.  a C in grad school is not good anyway.
> I remember in college my women's studies teacher asked us to write a paper
> using ideas from the readings, I did mine, and because it was so well
> integrated the bleeping teacher could not see the influence.. I had to
> write it over, pointing out whose idea i was using where. (in short,
> attributing)  i was annoyed because those were the days of typewriters, not
> like you could do changes easily on the computer today.  so I grumbled
> about it for the two days it took.  but I got an A on it.
>
> Tamar Mag Raine
> [log in to unmask]
>
> The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
> persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
> Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
> -George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
>
> IM: tamarmag48
> Oakland Mayor's Commission on People with disabilities
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Kathy <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: 9/1/2004 6:02:51 PM
> > Subject: Re: Woman with CP kicked out of Boston University law school
>
> onplagiarism charges (fwd)
>
> > I know I will probably raise some hackles but I can't understand what is
>
> so
>
> > difficult in crediting proper sources even if you're severely disabled.
>
> It
>
> > seems to me it is a matter of making sure everything is properly cited
> > and footnoted.
> >
> > I know if I'd got an C-plus average, I'd be talking with my professors to
>
> find
>
> > out why my grade average was so low.  Most graduate programs consider
>
> that to
>
> > be a low pass, at best.
> >
> > Kat
> >
> > On Wednesday 01 September 2004 8:51 pm, Gary Peterson wrote:
> > > Hi all!
> > >
> > > An E-bud of mine sent me this and I thought you might want to check it
> > > out.
> > >
> > > Later!-Gary
> > >
> > >
> > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > > Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:43:43 -0400
> > >
> > >
> > >   Woman: BU trumped up plagiarism
> > > By David Weber
> > > Monday, August 30, 2004
> > >
> > > A 26-year-old woman disabled with cerebral palsy claims Boston
>
> University
>
> > > dashed her dreams of becoming a lawyer by trumping up charges of
>
> plagiarism
>
> > > against her and booting her out of law school six days before
>
> graduation.
>
> > >       Layla Kiani, a magna cum laude undergraduate double major from
> > > the University of Texas, had all but completed her three years of law
> > > study
>
> at
>
> > > BU when two professors leveled the plagiarism charges against her in
> > > May 2003. She has filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court against the
>
> school.
>
> > >       ``This all happened more than a year ago, but I am still in shock
> > > every day,'' Kiani said.
> > >
> > >       Kiani, who moves about in a wheelchair and whose reduced motor
>
> skills
>
> > > limit her physical ability to write, admits she committed errors in
> > > footnoting and attribution in four of her papers. But she said she
> > > never intended to sneak anything by her instructors.
> > >
> > >       Kiani said she believed BU had deemed her methods on the papers
>
> to be
>
> > > sound because they had passed muster previously.
> > >
> > >       ``If you turn in a paper and get a grade (C-minus) on it, you
>
> would
>
> > > think you are OK,'' she said.
> > >
> > >       After the initial plagiarism charge was made in May 2003, Kiani
>
> said,
>
> > > another professor notified the school that he too believed Kiani had
> > > plagiarized in a paper from the prior year.
> > >
> > >       Kiani, who claims misprescribed anti-anxiety medication caused
>
> her to
>
> > > experience chronic drowsiness that affected her grades, said she felt a
> > > ``false sense of security'' when she submitted her first troubled paper
> > > without incident one year before the plagiarism charges.
> > >
> > >       BU associate general counsel Lawrence Elswit defends the school's
> > > decision to cut Kiani loose after her grades were lowered because the
> > > plagiarism charges caused her average to drop below 2.0.
> > >
> > >       ``Without getting into too much detail, the evidence of
> > > plagiarism was indisputable and overwhelming,'' Elswit said.
> > >
> > >       Kiani's lawyer, Ben Tahriri, said, ``You have a colossal
>
> institution
>
> > > going against diminutive woman who's gone through 10,000 hoops to get
>
> where
>
> > > she is today.'