CARBONDALE - Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees gave President Glenn Poshard of Southern Illinois University Carbondale a slap on the hands Thursday for mistakes he made as a student while writing his 1976 master's thesis and 1984 doctoral dissertation.

Accepting the recommendations of a seven-person faculty review committee that formed nearly four weeks earlier to review allegations of plagiarism against Poshard, the longtime SIU official, and former state senator and U.S. congressman, remains the SIU president without any major punishment.

According to a resolution unanimously approved by trustees during a special meeting held in a SIUC Student Center ballroom, "the board determines that this matter has been fully reviewed by a committee of competent and objective faculty and no further action is necessary, thereby concluding the matter."

Poshard is being required to make corrections on his 1984 doctoral dissertation, "The Provisions for Gifted Children Education from 1977 through 1983 in twenty-two Southern Illinois Counties," that was called into question in late August for several passages not cited correctly and using verbatim text without attribution.

In mid-September, shortly before the review committee was formed at the urging of Chancellor Fernando Treviño, a Chronicle of Higher Education article written by Thomas Bartlett found questionable passages in Poshard's 1975 master's thesis at SIUC.

Trustees never wavered in their support of Poshard. Throughout the plagiarism ordeal, they publicly endorsed through their chairman, Roger Tedrick, their unanimous support for his continuing as president.

"Dr. Poshard is a man of great personal integrity and he will remain our president with full board support. His energy, passion and commitment to this university is unsurpassed ? he continues to be the right man to lead the SIU system," Tedrick read in a prepared statement during a news conference held shortly after the board meeting.

Tedrick said during the news conference that board members considered early before the allegations became public knowledge from a campus newspaper article that ran in late August, that a committee outside of the SIUC campus be requested to review the allegations and make recommendations.

"Early on, there was discussion about an outside committee, but the board chose to follow the rules," Tedrick said about SIU policy on academic integrity defined in the current graduate handbook.

Professor Ramanarayanan Viswanathan, who chaired the review committee, said members met eight times and totaled about 24 hours reviewing the charges and making recommendations.

During the course of their review, they found no student conduct code or definition of plagiarism in SIUC Graduate Student handbooks when Poshard wrote his papers.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com / 351-5076@thesouthern.com / 351-5076