November 3, 2006

When Originality Is a Waste of Time

To the Editor:

The administrators at Southern Illinois University should be congratulated rather than censured for their apparent use of a plagiarized strategic plan ("Southern Illinois U. Strategic Plan May Have Been Plagiarized," The Chronicle, September 22).

Universities' strategic plans are generally carbon-copy, vacuous documents that are not actually intended to be put into practice. Their purpose is to allow campus administrators to give the appearance of visionary