by Kandiss Edwards
Could 22, 2025
Evelyn Harris, Smith Faculty’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 Faculty awarded the diploma after the musician delivered the faculty’s graduation speech on Could 18. The plagiarism was found a number of days after the ceremony. Harris acknowledged merging massive parts of previous graduation speeches into her deal with. Harris didn’t present correct attribution. Consequently, the shortage of attribution violated the faculty’s requirements of educational integrity.
Smith Faculty posted a letter addressed to the varsity neighborhood. President Sarah Willie-LeBreton said, “I have to share with you, nonetheless, that it has come to our consideration that one in every of 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 faculty admin following the ceremony.
The school plans to replace the commencement highlights posted on its web site to mirror 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 energetic within the Western Massachusetts music scene, has not issued a public assertion following the incident. Smith Faculty officers have indicated that graduation supplies on the faculty’s web site might be up to date to mirror the change.
Smith Faculty’s graduation speaker is just not the one cause the establishment is within the information. The school’s resolution to award an honorary diploma to Dr. Rachel Levine, the primary brazenly transgender four-star admiral, throughout its Could 2025 graduation ceremony has sparked vital controversy.
Critics argue that honoring Levine, a transgender lady, at a traditionally ladies’s school undermines the establishment’s dedication to ladies’s rights. Supporters of the faculty’s resolution spotlight Levine’s accomplishments in public well being and her advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, viewing the honour as a mirrored image of Smith Faculty’s dedication to inclusivity and variety.
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