Debating Intellectual Dishonesty in the BYU Religion Department

Ifinally received a very interesting comment to my post that bears repeating. The commenter supports the idea that has become the status quo in academia. It really needs to be flushed out so that we can raise our consciousness about why it exists as the status quo in many institutions of higher learning:

JimF argues:

I have several bones to pick. First, I suspect that you are wrong about the how often professors at universities other than BYU abuse students. Second, though I am sure that there are those in Religious Education who are intellectually dishonest, I doubt that intellectual dishonesty is "pervasive" in that college. One instance--if what you cite is an instance--doesn't indict the whole group. Third, I'm not sure what the professor asked your daughter to do that was dishonest. You are right that she ought not to rely on his offer of future help. But whether his request that she help with his work amounts to dishonesty depends on what she does and what he does with it. If he publishes what she writes substantially unrevised, and he doesn't explictly give her credit for writing it, that is intellectually dishonest. But he could ask her for research reports and then use them to write up his results without making her a co-author. Of course, sometimes the line between those two is difficult to discern, and a professor ought to err on the side of giving more rather than less credit. But using research assistants to do research without making them co-authors doesn't necessarily amount to intellectual dishonesty or student abuse.

I countered with:

You seemed to justify a system of publishing and perishing at any cost. It is actually a very dishonest system to feel that you shouldn't give credit where credit is due.

I have seen abuse even with the so-called using research assistant where they perform the task of finding stuff. In the case of my daughter he asked her to write some initial things.

Professors don't necessarily direct their research assistants other than to give them a topic, which means many time they find information and insights the professor knew nothing about.

The person then does more than go to the library and find material. Many timees they write rough notes which are used very often with the professors editing them and putting in transitions.

That fact that you buy in to a system where publications are built on the intellectual finds of unnamed research assistants is dishonest in itself. I prefer an environment where I did my doctoral work where people collaborated.

I had a library employee once who did all the research for a bibliographic work on Black Progressivism. The full professor gave him a grateful mention despite the fact the librarian did seventy percent of the work. I questioned him and told him what he was doing was dishonest. He cussed and swore and finally to my surprise not only did he give my employee a second co-authorship he gave him all the royalties to their second book. That is more impressive than what you are suggesting.

My professor and I have continued our relationship for fifteen years co-writing, sometimes I carry my cognate professor and sometimes she cares me. We have not had a problem in the RTP process both having obtained rank and promotion to the full professor level.

I think since I have spent twenty years of my life in academia I can speak from experience here. I was granted tenure at San Diego State University which will compare with anywhere you might have worked. I had to go up against three RTP committees including the main SDSU review committee and I made it in four years. I have worked in six universities and have published. I have seen abuse in the publlication process and I have determined not to use students work dishonestly.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself if you are a professor that doesn't build up his students and raise them up. Because your are promulgating a dishonest practice. I can see you have bought in to the idea that is okay to use the intellectual property of others because you gave them a fellowship or ten bucks an hour. How sad you don't consider them colleagues to be respected and develolped.

The system you believe in is a form of slavery. Mormon scholars should be the most ethical not calling for the status quo.

I am not going to out the professor at BYU I worked for but one time I found a unique fact of Mormon history that had nothing to do with what he paid me. I naively shared it with him. Later he used it as if his own in a publication.
Since I depended on my graduate assistantship there wasn't much I could do about it since I had a wife and two kids to feed.

A lot of times the research assistants become experts at the topic. I remember Bruce Satterfield and a few guys like David Whitaker and Bruce Van Orden that were treated better. They went on to great things. Itis better to err on the side of the student than to make your career on their intellectual finds.

Having worked in five universities I am sure there is a wide range of opinion on this matter. I am fascinated that LDS scholars should be the strongest in favor of the status quo rather than in to building a collaborative approach. I have worked at two of the three LDS universities and watched some peculiar rationalizations on why they did what they did. I frankly perceived a lot of guilt also as many would tell me why the screwed over somebody. I saw the downside up close and personal and done to a lot of faculty members. Never in those conversations did the person telling me about their deeds, deny they should give credit but usually they took the expedient way out and considered it standard operating procedures. I watch people's lives destroyed as professors were transferred to the library. I saw two nationally known scholars get the boot to the library and saw less qualified people put in their place. Even when they produced professors didn't always fare well as others wanted the credit for their work when they wouldn't back down they were removed from their place. I am not talking about myself personally in these cases because being a librarian I see my colleagues in other departments like a fly on the wall.

Having been a dean of libraries where faculty members had to publish I have seen people lie on resumes and claim publications. I have seen plagarism and had to fire people for dishonesty. I would rather walk in the noon-day sun like Elder Kikuchi suggests. Plus it is no skin off my nose to give someone a co-authorship when he or she did more than a minimum effort researching or writing. I have even edited my faculty members publications just so they could publish and do it in a manner that wouldn't embarass themselves or our institution. Why would any institution perpetuate a practice that is more harmful than good by not promoting their graduate students.