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Wheelock’s chief plagiarism cop admits she lifted others’ words

Courtesy of Wheelock College

Shirley Malone-Fenner oversees cases of student plagiarism at Wheelock University, but is now accused of pinching phrases.

The vice president of academic affairs wrote a new school year welcome-back letter to staff and administration, but a fellow professor discovered some unattributed phrases after running the statement through anti-plagiarism software, The Boston Globe reports.

At least six passages were nearly identical to that of a welcome-back letter Harvard President Drew Faust sent to her own faculty in 2007. Malone-Fenner’s letter also contained phrases from two other sources: letters from the presidents of Rutgers University and University of the Pacific.

Malone-Fenner responded to the accusations in a statement to the Globe, admitting she had used words from others’ welcoming messages without attribution, but she had only attempted to share a message of excitement for the upcoming school year with the faculty.

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Read the full story at the Globe.

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