After a lengthy comparison of North Texas’s plan, there were many sections that seemed to be used in documents written by other schools as well. The comparison was prompted by an anonymous e-mail to The Poly that referred to an article written by the University’s student newspaper, the North Texas Daily, which reported that the academic plan posted contained sections that were very similar to those in plans of other schools.

Secretary of the Institute and General Counsel Charles Carletta pointed out that it’s somewhat common for some ideas to be borrowed from others in academia. At the same time, though, Jackson said, “It is entirely inappropriate to lift verbatim whole sections of another university’s plan ... As far as I understand, that’s called plagiarism.”

The posted document ends with a note saying, “This draft document is a working document drawn from best practices, innovations and current initiatives of universities across the country. In its present form, it is only a starting point. UNT must sculpt its own future in light of what can be learned from other institutions and in context of its unique assets and challenges. The final document will reflect that uniqueness.” However, there are no references listed to show where ideas may have come from.

In its present form, both plans have a bulleted list under the heading “Entrepreneurship Education and Research.” The bullets are almost nearly identical. For example, the third bullet under this heading in the plan posted by the University of North Texas says that they will “Expand opportunities for students to be creative and entrepreneurial by increasing the number of hands-on courses such as Introduction to Engineering Design, Inventors Studio, and Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory; programs such as Product Design and Innovation; and competitions such as the Formula SAE car project.”

By comparison, the third bullet under this heading in The Plan reads that we will “Expand opportunities for students to create innovation by increasing the number of hands-on courses such as Introduction to Engineering Design, Inventors Studio, and Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory; programs such as Product Design and Innovation; and competitions such as the Formula SAE car project.”

In a second example that shows the similarity of the North Texas plan to documents published by other schools, many of the core value descriptions in the document are very similar to many of the core value descriptions that appear in documents from Tulane University.

The description of integrity in the UNT plan, for example, reads “We will act ethically, responsibly and consistently in our commitments. We are willing to be held accountable for our actions.” The values document adopted by the cabinet of the president at Tulane describes integrity as follows “We will act ethically, responsibly and consistently with our commitments. We are willing to be held accountable for our actions.”

Throughout the parts that closely resemble The Plan, there is no mention of RPI. Where The Plan uses words such as Rensselaer and we, the North Texas plan instead often used words such as UNT or “the university.”

Other sections of the document seem to closely match documents from Illinois State University, Syracuse University, and the University of Southern California.

Johnson told the North Texas Daily, “These are not new ideas. I wanted to put something up for people to react to.” The paper also reported that Johnson once worked for Syracuse as the executive vice provost for academic affairs.

Carletta said that The Plan was a “product of the entire [RPI] community,” and Jackson echoed the sentiment that a great deal of work was put into it. She said that it would have been appropriate for Johnson to ask if the sections could have used and that they should have been cited.