Lucio Picci - Home page --- La mia posizione nel 1999 --- Riferimenti sul caso --- La conclusione della vicenda.
Bologna, 1 March 2011
To: Rector of the University of Bologna
Prof. Ivano Dionigi
Via Zamboni, 33. 40126 Bologna
Copy:
Minister of Education, University and Scientific Research
Mariastella Gelmini
Viale Trastevere, 76/a. 00153 Rome
Al pubblico
Dear Rector,
academic plagiarism, when it is not confronted, damages honest colleagues and the institution as a whole. On this count, the University of Bologna has fallen short of its responsibilites.
I refer to three episodes. The first is the notorious “Zamagni affair”. It emerged as a consequence of the publication in the journal “Belfagor” of an article by Federico Varese, where the professor of the University of Oxford showed that Prof. Stefano Zamagni was responsible for more than one case of academic plagiarism (on this issue, see also the account provided by Maurizio Viroli on pages 134-5 of his “La libertà dei servi”, Laterza, 2010).
The second refers to a university student manual (by our colleagues Prof. Flavio Delbono and Prof. Stefano Zamagni, with a contribution by Prof. Corrado Benassi), published in 1997 by Il Mulino (Bologna). The episode received media coverage in 2009, when Prof. Flavio Delbono, who at the time was a candidate for the mayoral elections in Bologna, was questioned on the issue by an opposing candidate.
Lastly, I report a rumour that has been circulating for some time. In an attached document I provide an account of the episode as it is reported, and I indicate the simple way in which the University will be able to ascertain its eventual veracity and the presence of any responsibility by a colleague of ours.
I clarify the context of this letter. More than ten years ago, in a letter that since then has been made public on the Internet, I declared my disagreement with the silence that followed the revelations made by Prof. Federico Varese. According to some, such silence, continuing to this day, is explained by the fact that academic plagiarism is common in Italy, and its perpetrators would act against any opposition by following Manzoni’s “Uncle Count” dictate: “suppress it, and cut it short”. I do not intend to judge such theory. What is certain is that the worst hypotheses find room, when not a justification, if we observe with detachment the decision of the University of Bologna not to consider what has been, and is, observed by all.
On this day I’m being hired as a full professor of this University and, no longer subject to possible blackmailing, I’m finally in a position not to suggest, but to demand, that the institution to which I belong fulfils its responsibilities. I ask the University of Bologna:
To check out the episodes I have mentioned;
If necessary, to decide appropriate sanctions;
To consider the opportunity of creating an organism, now conspicuously absent, capable of guaranteeing the academic integrity of its professors.
Sincerely yours,
Lucio Picci
Attachments.
Prof. Lucio Picci
Department of Economics
Faculty of Political Science “Roberto Ruffilli”
University of Bologna
Lucio Picci - Home page --- La mia posizione nel 1999 --- Riferimenti sul caso --- La conclusione della vicenda.