Collegian file graphic.
THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | FALL 2024 EDITORIAL BOARD
To our Collegian readership and campus community,
Over the past two weeks, we have been investigating the discovery of the usage of plagiarized content in stories produced by two of our Multimedia reporters. The content in question consisted of football practice footage obtained from a former Butler Athletics intern and distributed across several Multimedia packages covering Butler football. It was also included in sports segments shared within select episodes of the Collegian’s DAWGCAST. The plagiarism was corroborated by both reporters and spanned the course of the 2023-24 academic year.
After we were made aware of the plagiarism, we immediately removed every piece of content created and published by said parties that could have contained plagiarized and unattributed content. In total, 25 Multimedia packages were unlisted on YouTube and deleted from our website.
Page 36 of the Collegian Staff Handbook makes clear our policy on plagiarism, which reads that “The Butler Collegian cannot and will not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication or cheating of any kind. Plagiarism and fabrication will result in the immediate termination of a staff member. In case you have any doubt what these terms mean, here are their definitions: Plagiarism: Using someone else’s work and intentionally passing it off as your own. It includes stealing material from another source as well as ‘borrowing’ phrases and expressions without giving proper credit.”
In accordance with Collegian Staff Handbook policy, we have terminated the employment of the staff reporter who initiated the plagiarism and presented such footage as their own, as they knowingly and repeatedly published uncredited footage as their own without informing editors.
At all relevant times, Multimedia Editor Eva Hallman was the employee’s direct supervisor. Though Hallman was unaware of this plagiarism until the reporter informed her of it, she apologizes for this lapse in ethics.
“As Multimedia editor, it was a misstep in my section and under my guidance,” Hallman said. “I take full accountability for not inquiring more and allowing it to be published. I apologize to the Collegian for allowing this inaccuracy to pass my supervision, and to our viewers who consumed the content.”
Collegian policy is and has always been to properly attribute all materials used to create content, whether they be work of our staff members or through publicly available sources. Throughout the course of our 139 years of publication, we remain dedicated to providing ethical journalism and holding our community and ourselves accountable when any issues obstructing that mission have surfaced. In a Sept. 23 all-staff meeting, we emphasized to our entire staff what constitutes plagiarism, made clear what the ethical and professional consequences for conducting it are and plan to supplement our training in future to reflect our stance on this betrayal of journalistic integrity.
Editor-in-chief Leah Ollie emphasized the Collegian’s ethical standards and promised that future content will be more rigorously scrutinized for ethical breaches.
“I speak for every editor when I affirm our commitment to our integrity and ethics in our response to this matter,” Ollie said. “We have worked tirelessly to defend the quality and trustworthiness of our paper’s coverage, and ensure that we are remaining vigilant in preventing possible future lapses in quality journalism.”
On behalf of the entire 2024-25 Butler Collegian Editorial Board, we sincerely apologize for this breach in our standards and its subsequent effect on our readership, who trust us to accurately and ethically create and distribute content. We stand by our rigorous ethics and policies, which we are assessing and bolstering to ensure that this matter is prevented for years to come.
— The Butler Collegian Fall 2024 Editorial Board
