Ethics demand more than preaching

The Daily Wildcat provided an important service to honest history by reporting the story on the scandal now engulfing the University of Arizona concerning its continued publication of I Married Wyatt Earp. However, I was surprised by the university's lack of concern that it has been impeding progress of knowledge. The University of Arizona Press has touted I Married Wyatt Earp as the actual memoirs of Josephine Earp since its publication in 1976. However, convincing evidence has appeared to show that the book is a literary hoax and the UA Press has been misleading historians and scholars for more than two decades.

In Stephanie Corn's story of Jan. 20, Press Director Christine Szuter is quoted as saying that the UA Press has no plans of investigating the charges of the book's fraudulence. I find this comment amazing. The mission of a university press is to promote knowledge and enhance learning. Publication of what appears to be historical fraud runs contrary to the stated mission of the university.

This is a question of ethics in academia. When Dr. Peter Likins assumed the presidency of the University of Arizona, he did so with much fanfare about the importance of ethics and that point has been central to his administration. There is nothing ethical about a university's press publishing a false book that misleads students and scholars. I Married Wyatt Earp has been used as a text in college classes and has been cites as source material in numerous scholarly works on the American frontier.

Ethics demands more than lip service. Ethics demands responsibility and accountability. It is a hellish contradiction for the president of the university to demand ethics of others while the university fails to uphold even the most basic of ethical standards to ensure authenticity in its publications.

How can a university pretend to teach ethics to its students when at the same time it violates the very principles for which it stands? If a history student were to submit a thesis containing fabrications, would university spokesmen rise to that student's defense?

If indeed ethics are of any import at the University of Arizona, then there is only one course. The university must uphold open investigation into the authenticity of the book it has been publishing and promoting as a work of historical importance. Anything less than a full investigation would violate the principles for which Dr. Likins claims he stands.

Casey Tefertiller
Author, Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend