Councilman Reeve Gone at Concordia
No explanation is given, but the move follows accusations he plagiarized.
Amid plagiarism allegations and well into the fall semester, San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Derek Reeve is inexplicably no longer teaching at Concordia University.
"Derek Reeve is not currently employed by Concordia," a university spokeswoman said Friday, declining to provide an explanation.
The move comes two weeks after Patch reported that Reeve lifted numerous passages from copyrighted articles in blog essays he wrote for Patch, as well as in two of his City Council staff reports. The authors whose words he copied labeled Reeve's actions plagiarism.
When the story broke, Reeve was employed part-time by Concordia, a private Christian university in Irvine. According to the school's fall schedule, Reeve was teaching two political science classes this semester: American Government and Comparative Political Systems.
Attempts to reach Reeve for comment were unsuccessful. But earlier this week, in a guest column published by the Orange County Register, he contended that blogs are informal literature in which attribution is not required.
"Most people recognize that blogging is an informal style of communication, like musings, in which the standards of communication are relaxed," he wrote. "Despite this, a false set of assumptions have been erroneously placed upon me in order to make pseudo-accusations of 'plagiarism.'"
Experts and authors disagreed, saying no matter what the format or venue is, the same rules apply: verbatim copying of another person's work needs to be in quotes, and attributed.
It isn't unheard of for colleges to punish professors who plagiarize. In 2004, for example, the University of New Hampshire penalized a professor for "scholarly misconduct" over a column published in Manchester's The Union Leader.
Reeve, an attorney, is also a part-time instructor at Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo. A Saddleback spokeswoman declined to comment for this story.
marcopolo
5:22 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Wow.
Concordia...sticking up for academic integrity.
Carole Matson
7:29 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Finally, justice against one who stretches ethics and morals. I pray that Saddleback
follows their lead.
Carole Matson
7:29 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
GREAT work Patch!!!!
laconic
8:39 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Seems as though Saddleback will need to weigh in on the issue of academic integrity, too.
concerned parent
7:24 am on Saturday, October 8, 2011
Concordia is doing the right thing. I hope Saddleback will as well. And I trust Mr. Reeve will have learned a lesson that he can't get away with stealing other people's intellectual property.
Dan
7:29 am on Saturday, October 8, 2011
Rick Lyons..... Hello Rick Lyons? Where are you? Nothing to say about this?
SJ
7:38 am on Saturday, October 8, 2011
What a mess and something this City Council needs to get far away from. This guy sure did go on a downward spiral really fast. So many really other important things to talk about - so do the right thing Reeve and slowly disappear from the City Council as well and try to fix the mess you've created.
Eric Groos
10:04 am on Saturday, October 8, 2011
"TTFN" (Tigger - Winnie the Pooh) "PIN HEAD" (Bill O'Reilly)
j denton
11:10 am on Saturday, October 8, 2011
What lesson is Mr Reeves teaching his kids?
Carole Matson
12:42 pm on Saturday, October 8, 2011
How to lie, cheat and steal. Great role model, huh? I pray for him a lot. He has
lost his moral and ethical compass, along with his Christian one. He has a lot
of 'splanin' to do! If he has even an ounce of decency left, he should step down
from the City Counsil seat so they can get on with City work and not his disruptions.
By the way...hey Lyons and Perry...no comment?
CE
11:54 am on Saturday, October 8, 2011
Assuming he really was let go, was it mid-semester or not? And was it over the plagiarism, or the dog issue, or just his general notoriety? I guess we'll never know.
KC
3:48 pm on Saturday, October 8, 2011
It might have been for the plagarisim since real schools fire professors for something like that as it's the core of the profession. The other stuff may have not helped as well.
CE
5:22 pm on Sunday, October 9, 2011
I was just looking for a particular comment by Rick Lyons on another article -- and it's gone! He (or someone else) apparently deleted nearly all his past comments.
I'm sure the liberals are to blame. That must be it.
Carole Matson
6:29 pm on Sunday, October 9, 2011
You're right!!! All of Lyons posts are gone!!! I'll check Perry's also....Roy and
Jenna...do you have any insite into what happened to all of the posts? Thanks!
dissenting voice
9:45 pm on Sunday, October 9, 2011
Yes, sometimes councilmen say things they would like to take back. I am sure everyone has. This happens. I remember Tom Hribar wishing he hadn't talked about the crows. My husband and I voted for and support Derek Reeves. We are not
in favor of the debt that our current council has failed to deal with and the use of the redevelopment agency (tax payer funds) to fund private sector business in our community. This council needs to spend more time on the real economic issues
facing this city and less time attacking one of its own. A good start would be a focus on reducing costs in our overbloated city budget.
Carole Matson
9:01 am on Monday, October 10, 2011
to dissenting voice. I believe you have your facts wrong. The Council has not had
anything to do with the plagiarism situation. Never mentioned at meetings, etc. nor
anywhere else. So please keep the finger pointing to where it belongs, Reeve plagiarized and that is serious!
Squonk
11:56 am on Monday, October 10, 2011
WWRLS? (What Would Rick Lyons Say?)