Might 22, 2025
Evelyn Harris, Smith School’s 2025 graduation speaker, plagiarized parts of her speech resulting in the return of her honorary doctorate.
Evelyn Harris, a musician and former member of the a cappella group Candy Honey within the Rock, has returned her honorary diploma.
Smith School awarded the diploma after the musician delivered the school’s graduation speech on Might 18. The plagiarism was found a couple of days after the ceremony. Harris acknowledged merging giant parts of previous graduation speeches into her handle. Harris didn’t present correct attribution. Consequently, the dearth of attribution violated the school’s requirements of educational integrity.
Smith School posted a letter addressed to the college group. President Sarah Willie-LeBreton said, “I need to share with you, nonetheless, that it has come to our consideration that one in all our honorary diploma recipients—musician Evelyn M. Harris—borrowed a lot of her speech to graduates and their households from the graduation speeches of others with out the attribution typical of and central to the beliefs of educational integrity.”
Willie-LeBreton defined that Harris was direct and trustworthy about together with beforehand written excerpts. The singer voluntarily relinquished the honorary diploma throughout discussions with the school admin following the ceremony.
The faculty plans to replace the commencement highlights posted on its web site to replicate the change. Different honorary diploma recipients on the ceremony included Harvard professor Danielle Allen, public well being official Rachel Levine, and author Preeti Simran Sethi.
Harris, who has lengthy been lively within the Western Massachusetts music scene, has not issued a public assertion following the incident. Smith School officers have indicated that graduation supplies on the school’s web site might be up to date to replicate the change.
Smith School’s graduation speaker shouldn’t be the one purpose the establishment is within the information. The faculty’s determination to award an honorary diploma to Dr. Rachel Levine, the primary overtly transgender four-star admiral, throughout its Might 2025 graduation ceremony has sparked vital controversy.
Critics argue that honoring Levine, a transgender lady, at a traditionally girls’s faculty undermines the establishment’s dedication to girls’s rights. Supporters of the school’s determination spotlight Levine’s accomplishments in public well being and her advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, viewing the glory as a mirrored image of Smith School’s dedication to inclusivity and variety.
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