A week after the piece's publication, The Student received an unsigned e-mail from an anonymous source-the source created a new Hotmail account for this purpose-which suggested that not everything written in Simmons' piece was original work. The source noted that Simmons took phrases and paragraphs directly from two texts found on a State PIRG Web site and pointed out that Simmons did not attribute his information to either text. Dean of Students Ben Lieber and Dean of the Campus Center Sam Haynes, as well as Student Editor-in-Chief Andrew Bruns '07 and Managing Opinion Editor Vicky Chau '08 received the e-mail.
"The anonymous tip included links to the files from which Mike allegedly copied. Vicky and I immediately investigated these links and compared them to the article we'd published the week before," Bruns said. "It was immediately evident that the tipster's claims had significant evidence behind them."
Bruns immediately contacted Simmons, explaining that The Student staff expects writers to attribute consulted information. Bruns wrote in an e-mail to Simmons, "While I understand that the source, www.studentaidaction.com, promotes the use of their sample op-ed piece as a template of sorts, The Student does not condone such misrepresentation of another's work as one's own." Bruns asked Simmons to provide The Student with an additional letter to the editor explaining the disputed opinion piece.
In his response, Simmons explained that he had no intention of plagiarizing when he submitted the piece. "I had no intention to misrepresent work as my own that was not," he wrote in an e-mail response to Bruns. "Mr. Luke Swarthout, Amherst Class of 2004 and Higher Education Associate for the Student Public Research Groups, did okay me using that sample editorial to raise awareness of the campaign," said Simmons. "I asked him explicitly if I could run that as a piece, as part of the campaign. He okayed that."
Swarthout confirmed that he approved Simmons' use of the PIRG statement, stating that he contacted Simmons and asked him to submit the editorial. Swarthout said he told Simmons about the Web site which is created to help students become more involved and better understand the issues. "Some students will choose to create their own materials, but we provide fact sheets, sample editorials and other resources to help students," he said. "Furthermore, Mike and I spoke about this particular editorial and I said it was fine for him to submit it under his name."
According to Student policy, written attribution of sources is necessary. "Whenever someone quotes from an outside source, we require the writer to cite that source so our readers know the origins of the data or arguments found in the article," said Bruns. "Just as professors require their students to cite any outside sources, we expect our writers to acknowledge any part of their articles which may not be their own," Bruns said. "We have no reason to believe that arguments in any submitted opinion piece have been gleaned from uncredited sources."
Chau expressed similar thoughts. "The piece I received was from Mike's inbox. Though he never signed the article or his e-mails, he never indicated that the piece was not his own original work." Consequently, the staff assumed that Simmon's opinion piece was original.
The College Honor Code has requirements similar to the Student policy. While the opinion piece was not an academic paper, there is a clause in the Code which states that it is applicable to students "participating in College activities wherever these [activities] are held." Lieber therefore believes that the Code applies to The Student. "We do believe that the Honor Code would apply to material in The Amherst Student … simply because The Student is a student group," he said. "The Honor Code would apply to The Student just as it would to other campus publications."
Simmons, though, said he never claimed to have written the piece. "Nowhere did I claim unequivocal authorship," he said. "I did not sign my name to the contents of the letter. Nor did I look at the Nov. 9 issue of The Student until I was notified by the staff about this. The Student did no revision except they chose an altogether different title from the original one from the campaign letter and thus, the e-mail I sent to The Student, and I didn't discover this until contacted by The Student staff.
Simmons continued, "But it came from my inbox so I certainly am taking responsibility and will face the consequences. I wish The Student had better procedure set up that would obviate the possibility of these things happening. But I do not fault The Student for my own oversight."
Bruns claimed that if Simmons did not intend the article to have his name printed, he had a great deal of time during which he could have realized the article was in fact published under his name. "The anonymous e-mail came too late for us to include any information in the Nov. 16 issue of the paper," Bruns said. "As a result, Simmons had ample time to ask us to run a correction because our next issue wasn't until Nov. 30, after Thanksgiving Break."
Simmons explained that since he received no feedback, he thought The Student staff understood his intentions. "Swarthout informed me that he had written the language and he asked me to send it to The Student," he said. "I did just what the author intended I do, modifying it according to his instruction."
Simmons reiterated throughout the interview that he was only trying to alert the student body to legislation that he had discussed with Swarthout and that both agreed might be detrimental to students on financial aid.
In retrospect, Simmons said that he understands his mistake. "Since I had permission to use the letter as I wished, and since this is standard procedure in organizing around political issues, I sent it on without a second thought about plagiarism," he said. "I am sorry for this lack of thought. In my mind, passing on this letter … indicated only endorsement of its content, not authorship," he continued. "On reflection, I can see how this may be interpreted in other ways, however. I should have been more careful."
Simmons continued, "You have to take responsibility for what you do, and that's what I'm trying to do right now."