Reply #25: Can I ask you about that? [View All]

We had a prof at my college who plagiarized his hiring lecture. I was there when he gave it, and he never credited the prof who originally gave it. Two years later, I was in the dept. office and heard that same lecture coming out of his office in a different voice, so I went in and asked him about it. He told me that he'd taped his prof and then memorized the lecture, since it was so good. That's the one he gave (and it was a brilliant one) to get hired. I reported it to the dept. head after I graduated that spring, and it finally made sense why he'd not lived up to my expectations.

Anyway . . . just after I caught him in that, he asked me to give a guest lecture (as an undergrad) for his novel class, as I'd studied the piece more than he had. Well, first he asked for my notes from when I'd studied it in Russia and had been to a lecture by a Tolstoy scholar. I told him that I didn't have time to translate my notes (I take weird notes), and that's when he asked me to lecture it for him. I agreed, figuring he'd probably tape it, but I put it all together, making sure to credit absolutely everyone I could think of, even writing their names on the board. One of the students complained, though, and he got written up in his permanent file for having an undergrad teach his class.

Did I do the wrong thing? I know he's used that lecture since, but I made sure to write the names down when I saw him frantically copying everything down in the corner. Did I do wrong to give him someone else's work, knowing he'd probably copy it? I still feel weird about it.