There is no need for a special advisory panel including international experts to determine if action should be taken against College of The Bahamas president Dr. Rodney D. Smith after he admitted to plagiarism. This panel seems to be a cover-up for Dr. Smith’s folly.
The Council of The College of The Bahamas knows what it must do, and should do what it must without further delay. Dr. Smith must be relieved of his duties. It really is as simple as that.
As we have previously stated, we have always been of the view that Dr. Smith would – in time- do the honorable thing, and resign as President of The College of The Bahamas.
We were mistaken. Apparently he has no professional integrity.
So, we are today constrained to note that it now seems as if Dr. Smith is trying -in good old Bahamian style- to ride this one out; and otherwise brazen his way through.
This should not be allowed. The ethics of academia demands that he spares the college further damage to its credibility.
Too much in terms of credibility have already been lost by so many who should have by now demanded that Dr. Smith resign, or risk being fired, by the people who hired him.
Having besmirched his own character; and having brought The College of The Bahamas into the limelight where it is being used as a ‘political football’ and every body else’s favorite punching bag, Dr. Smith should be asked to leave. There is no need for any advisory panel to tell anyone anything about what Dr. Smith should do in the circumstances.
Regrettably, it now appears that The Council of The College of The Bahamas is itself quite confused as to how it should proceed in order to bring resolution to a matter that has already caused so many right-thinking Bahamians so much distress.
This is unfortunate, and we dare say most regrettable.
But as if the original insult and hurt done the College of The Bahamas and its credibility in the world of academics and higher learning, a so-called ‘advisory panel’ has been put together to advise The Council of The College of The Bahamas as to what it should do in the current circumstances.
While the panel is a distinguished one, we are today constrained to question why one was needed in the first place. The relevant facts concerning the Dr. Smith’s plagiarism are confessed and well known.
Dr. Smith, other academics and other qualified professionals all know that some one caught in such a situation would have already resigned; or would have been fired.
Today this simple matter is being unnecessarily ‘complexified’. And while this matter is being unnecessarily dragged out, the Bahamian taxpayer is asked to pay for what is little more than an outrage.
If the matter at hand was itself not bad enough, there is information to suggest that other faculty in the institution who ought to know better are also skating on thin ice – so to speak – as they rush forward to defend Dr. Smith for an offence for which he (Smith) has offered no defense.
Here the reference is to a recent statement forwarded by Dr. Ian Strachan on behalf of “the faculty and staff of The College of The Bahamas” expressed “strong support for Dr. Smith.”
The statement said, “He is the legitimate and highly capable leader of this institution and we stand behind him. He has publicly apologized for the regrettable error made during his address at honours convocation and we accept his apology.
“We recognize that professionals at all levels and from all walks of life are capable of error. As educators we know that plagiarism is a serious academic offense and we neither overlook nor minimize it.”
This curious statement begs any number of questions. Suffice it to say that a public apology – in this sad instance involving the president of the nation’s premier tertiary level academic institution – is perfectly irrelevant.
In the real world, guilty with explanation does not compute. We are quite amazed that Dr. Strachan does not seem to understand this elementary fact. But ‘be that is it may’ this man must know why he is so stridently involved in what amounts to little more than a waste of time.
No one should ever, and we mean ‘ever!’ try to defend the indefensible.
When they do, they make a mockery of law, order and etiquette.
In the ultimate analysis, then, if Dr. Smith must not be allowed to get away with what this egregious outrage against academic propriety. When he misappropriated another academic’s intellectual belongings, he disgraced himself and the Academy.
If he continues in the post of president of The College of The Bahamas, that great institution would become a laughing stock in that world of academia where character, credibility and achievement are so intimately intertwined and commingled.
Dr. Rodney David Smith must go. To date, he has stayed around for far too long.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
