South Carolina president quits over plagiarised speech

The president of the University of South Carolina, Robert Caslen, has resigned after admitting he plagiarised part of a speech by a prominent US military leader during a commencement weekend speech.

“Trust is the most important ingredient of effective leadership, and when it is lost, it is nearly impossible to lead,” Mr Caslen, a former superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point, said in announcing his decision.

Mr Caslen, the president at South Carolina since August 2019, said he would leave office immediately, after a few days of trying to quell a growing uproar with an initial apology and an offer to resign that the university’s governing board first refused to accept.

In his remarks to the class of 2021, Mr Caslen largely repeated, without attribution, major portions of comments delivered by Admiral William McRaven, the former head of US Special Operations Command who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, to University of Texas graduates in 2014.

A former chancellor at the University of Texas, Mr McCraven spoke of life not being fair, and the need to take risks, confront bullies, and aid the downtrodden. Mr Caslen repeated those key sections of the 2014 speech by Mr McCraven, which has been widely viewed on YouTube. The plagiarism was first reported by a local news site, FITSNews.

Mr Caslen also provoked gasps during his speech by mistakenly referencing his South Carolina audience as graduates of the University of California.

In a brief letter of resignation to the University of South Carolina community, he offered apologies and words of gratitude but no explanation of how the plagiarism occurred.

“I am sorry to those I have let down,” he wrote. “I understand the responsibilities and higher standards of senior-level leadership. When those are not met, trust is lost. And when trust is lost, one is unable to lead.”

The board of trustees said the university’s previous president, Harris Pastides, will take the job on an interim basis while a search for a permanent successor gets underway.

Mr Caslen’s departure comes just as the University of South Carolina is losing another top official, with its provost, William Tate, having just been hired as the president of Louisiana State University and chancellor of the flagship LSU campus in Baton Rouge.

In the aftermath of Mr Caslen’s controversy, Professor Tate has reiterated his intent to become LSU’s first black leader.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com