[Vision2020] (no subject)

[Nick Gier]

Dear Ted,

When students are caught plagiarizing, they do not get a second 
chance.  According to UI policy and according to faculty discretion, they 
may fail the entire course.

But Wilson's booklet is different.  He has presumably made a profit on each 
copy sold since 1996.  That means that W. W. Norton, who hold the copyright 
on "Time on the Cross," could sue Wilson and Wilkins for copyright 
enfringement.

Wilson should have known that Wilkins was accused of plagiarism by a 
history student in his congregation.  Over the years Wilson and Wilkins 
have also been asked by conservative Presbyterians to withdraw the booklet 
from publication.  Their charge is not plagiarism; rather, it is shoddy 
scholarship that can't be changed by correcting the citation.

Professor R. T. McKenzie strongly implied in the Daily News article that 
the booklet could not be saved.  And how can the authors of "Time on the 
Cross" be sure that Wilson will not "misuse" their book once again?  Only a 
restraining order will stop him.

Wilson claims that he still stands by the thesis of the booklet, but that's 
precisely the problem: the thesis is untenable and offensive to the sons 
and daughters of slaves who still struggle against racism, implicit or 
explicit.  So, Ted, it is a very big deal.

And by the way, Wilson has not apologized to the women, blacks, gays, and 
lesbians whom he has insulted over the years.

Nick Gier