Faculty asks LeMoyne-Owen president to step down
Some faculty and staff are calling for the resignation of LeMoyne-Owen College President Andrea Miller, alleging she plagiarized famed pastor Joel Osteen during a convocation address to incoming freshmen.
A faculty organization sent a letter to the university’s board of trustees after several faculty members noticed that Miller’s address to the incoming freshmen seemed to come “virtually wholesale” from a popular sermon of Osteen’s titled “I’m Still Standing.”
In a statement to The Commercial Appeal, Miller said she intentionally used parts of Osteen’s speech, and doing so does not “constitute a serious breach of academic standards.”
“The fact is,” Miller said, “I did use materials from Joel Osteen within fair use, which means I did not photocopy or print text for distribution.”
Miller said she used quotes from the “I’m Still Standing” chapter of Osteen’s book “Blessed in Darkness.”
“I wanted to offer a message of motivation and encouragement to our students,” Miller said, “and offer reflection on what it means to endure the challenges that are a part of our transformation work at the college.”
Miller also said she had a statement that gave credit to Osteen in her notes for convocation that she may have overlooked.
The complaint is not the first by faculty toward Miller.
In 2017, some faculty members submitted a vote of “no confidence” in Miller’s leadership to the university’s board of trustees.
In a statement, faculty members assert that the 2017 vote of “no confidence” and the plagiarism accusations concerning the Oct. 24 speech “further accentuates the critical need for Dr. Miller to immediately step down from her position as President.”
The faculty organization leader, Michael Robinson, said the plagiarism allegation is the latest example of questionable actions from the university president. “Since the time of the vote,” Robinson said, “there has been a division among faculty and staff.”
Robinson lists Miller’s hiring and firing practices and a lack of essential administrative personnel among the reasons why he and other faculty members are calling for Miller’s resignation.
The plagiarism accusation is, according to Robinson, “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“We have not had a human resource director for a year and a half; that’s a problem,” Robinson said.
Instead, according to Robinson, the president, the vice president and the chief financial officer have assumed roles as human resources directors.
He said the university’s board of trustees has known about the lack of human resource personnel for a year and a half and done nothing.
Robinson also noted that after Miller’s appointment as president, a professional facilitator was hired to help with tensions between the faculty and the new president.
“The suggestions by that facilitator were, to my knowledge, never implemented,” Robinson said.
Miller’s convocation address violated academic standards, faculty members say, since Miller at no point during the convocation speech acknowledged that her speech was gathered from Osteen.
The faculty organization points to a statement from the student handbook that explains students caught plagiarizing are liable for disciplinary actions. As the highest official of the university, Miller should face the same consequences, faculty members say.
Faculty members linked a video of Miller’s speech as well as Osteen’s sermon in their letter to the board.
As of Friday morning, the video of Miller’s speech had been removed from YouTube.
The board has not made a formal statement yet about the plagiarism accusations.
“I would hope they take the complaints seriously,” Robinson said, “not for the faculty, not for the student, but for the institution. This is about credibility of the college. Parents trust us to educate young people.”
In response to Robinson’s concerns about her leadership, Miller noted that, “It is no secret that the organizational changes and our new direction at LeMoyne-Owen College has caused consternation among some faculty members. Still, I am committed to ensuring that this 156-year-old institution achieves new heights in outcomes for the students and families that we serve.”