On March 9, 2004, George Goens was awoken by a phone call at 3:50 a.m. telling him that his daughter, Betsy, was in trouble.
After Betsy gave birth to her second child, Luke, doctors noticed a rare complication. Hours later, as Goens was rushing to make his 6:15 a.m. flight from Connecticut, she died in a South Florida hospital.
His story would be told years later in a Sunday edition of The New York Times and then plagiarized by a UF student during an internship.
Intern reporter Hailey Mac Arthur used parts of Goens/ story for an article during her internship at The Colorado Springs Gazette.
This was one of four stories Mac Arthur wrote for the Gazette containing plagiarized material from the Times this summer.
"That story is so personal," he said. "The words that were put together were expressing my feelings and my thoughts."
Overwhelmed with his daughter/s death, Goens, an author, motivational speaker and consultant, took eight months to write the story of why his grandson Luke and granddaughter Claire will grow up without a mother.
Writing in a small Anglican church in Milton, Conn., Goens used a quiet balcony to focus his thoughts and express his emotions.
"It helped me heal by writing this story to go through the journey of the death of my daughter," he said. "Even if it wasn/t published it would have been worthwhile for me to get through that tragedy."
Goens/ article was published Feb. 18, 2007, in The New York Times, almost three years after Betsy/s death.
He was not informed of the plagiarism until he was contacted by The Independent Florida Alligator for an interview.
The passage that Mac Arthur took from Goens/ story, "Generations: A daughter/s death, and a quest for answers," read:
"The collision of life and death tossed me and those close to me into a cascade of disbelief, fear, anger, confusion and grief…. At that moment, as the crushing weight of death descended upon all of us, I promised my sweet daughter that I would seek justice for this tragedy. I would find the answers, hold people accountable."
The passage that appeared in Mac Arthur/s story about a Colorado woman who died in childbirth titled "Grief over pregnant mother/s death overwhelms family," read:
"The collision of life and death plays out in this nondescript home at the end of the cul-de-sac in a quiet northeast Colorado Springs neighborhood. King stares blankly… Mike King stands up, carrying the weight of a man tossed into a cascade of disbelief, despair and depression… the crushing weight of death descended upon her family, her friends, the entire second floor of Memorial Hospital North."
This fall, Mac Arthur will enter her third year as a journalism and economics major. A meeting is scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the consequences of her actions, which might include expulsion from the journalism college, according to John Wright, dean of the college.
"We at least want to have a chance to talk to her," Wright said. "I/ve said before, we deplore plagiarism of any kind."
To encourage integrity, students in the College of Journalism and Communications are required to take an ethics course.
"The community is supposed to trust you to give them factual and truthful information," said April Dudash, president of the UF Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. "How can you be a journalist if you/re willing to lie and steal?"
Goens said he would like to speak to Mac Arthur and understands the consequences she could face.
"I/m not interested in any kind of retribution or punishment," he said. "I just want the person to own up to the mistake they/ve made and make better decisions in the future."
Colorado Springs Gazette Editor Jeff Thomas said there has never been plagiarism of this magnitude at the publication.
Mac Arthur/s plagiarism will not have any reflection on the Gazette/s opinion of UF, he said.
"We all think that the University of Florida program is fine, and Hailey is a gifted young person and reporter, but we hope she is able to own this point in her life and move forward, and we wish her the best," he said, adding that he would be pleased to receive applications from UF students.
Mac Arthur was not available for comment.
