University Prez Quits After Being Caught Plagiarizing Commencement Speech
FAIL
“I was searching for words about resilience in adversity,” Bob Caslen said. “When they were transcribed into the speech, I failed to ensure its attribution.”
The president of the University of South Carolina has resigned after being caught lifting parts of a commencement speech last weekend from the former head of the U.S. Special Operations Command. In a letter sent Monday, Bob Caslen said he was “truly sorry” for plagiarizing an entire passage of Admiral William McCraven’s famous speech. McCraven, known for overseeing the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, had given a commencement speech in Texas in 2014, which now has over 13 million views on YouTube. It began: “Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often.” Caslen, a retired Army lieutenant general, claimed it was an honest mistake. “I was searching for words about resilience in adversity and when they were transcribed into the speech, I failed to ensure its attribution,” he said. That wasn’t his only major blunder, though. At one point in his speech, he congratulated his audience for graduating from the University of California, eliciting groans from the crowd.
