Top Academic Official Resigns After Lifting Others’ Words in Welcome Email

An administrator at Wheelock College, in Boston, has resigned after admitting she lifted passages from several college presidents for a welcome email to faculty members, The Boston Globe reports. The college announced Shirley Malone-Fenner’s resignation from the post of interim vice president for academic affairs on Monday.

Ms. Malone-Fenner used unattributed passages from several college presidents — including six passages from a letter written by the president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust — in a welcome email in August. Ms. Malone-Fenner apologized in an email to the college the day after the Globe uncovered the similarities.

“This is an action for which I am regretful,” she wrote in that email. “I apologize for my behavior, which was not reflective of what we expect from members of our academic community. I am also sorry for the negative attention this mistake has had for Wheelock.”

In an email announcing the resignation, the college’s president, Jackie Jenkins-Scott, extended a “heartfelt thank you” to Ms. Malone-Fenner for serving in the position.