Zac Townsend is Not an Asshole, But He Did Plagiarize in the NYT
As it turns out, Brown's newest plagiarist-in-chief is the selfsame Zac Townsend from the excellent documentary about last year's race for Brown UC president. His best line from the film, in between all the politicking and snickering and posturing: "I am Zac Townsend, and I am not an asshole."
Zac claims at one point in the documentary that his first love was journalism - not politics - and that had he gone to Harvard (which, he adds, he was admitted to) he would have wanted to be an editor at the Crimson. For the sake of Original Work, let's just say it's a good thing that Zac went to Brown and was only a columnist for the apparently less prestigious Herald.
The prematurely balding Zac is a member of the UC and participates in a zillion other extra-curricular clubs and activities. Unfortunately, he's taken his website down - looks like this is a bit too much publicity even for him - so we're unable to give you the full play-by-play. Suffice to say his "About Me" section was over a page of resume-bragging.
Zac even plagiarized a Letter-to-the-Editor he submitted to the New York Times. Writing to the Times about sex trafficking - his exceedingly strange and somewhat creepy pet cause - Zac copies at least one sentence verbatim from Foreign Affairs (you have to google the sentence; alas, IvyGate isn't a Foreign Affairs subscriber).
After the jump: the sentence that sneaked past the NYT plagiarism censors.
Zac: "Although the United States has sought to cooperate with foreign governments in combating the slave trade, it has rarely punished a country for failing to act against human trafficking."
FA: "Although the United States has sought to cooperate with foreign governments in combating the slave trade, it has rarely punished a country for failing to act against human trafficking."
In light of the New York Times Letter-to-the-Editor, it seems that for overachieving Zac, plagiarizing is more of a pathology than a necessity.
Ralph Reed got busted for plagiarizing in college, and look at where he is now! We're rooting for you, Zac. Sort of.
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November 6th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
OMG! It’s Karl Rove: The Rebirth!
November 6th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Plagiarist or not, I feel sorry for the kid. What kind of cruel joke was Yahweh pulling when he made Zac look like the love child of Karl Rove and Madeleine Albright?
November 6th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Yahweh was lazy and plagiarized on this one Zac Townsend, then.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Great photo, Sarah…not the best choice of a formal date, if you ask me…
November 7th, 2007 at 7:47 am
OMG, he plagiarized a whole sentence in a letter to the editor of a leading newspaper!!! Townsend is now officially a pathological plagiarizer!!! The sky is falling!!!
November 7th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
here’s what his website said:
“The question is not whether I’ve treated you rudely but whether you’ve ever heard me treat anyone else better.
~Proffesor Higgens, My Fair Lady
Welcome to my website. I created this website to display my photographs and decided a one section site would be unexciting. Subsequently I created elements of my life worthy of a website so I could then make one. In this section, I am going to paint the picture of life story in broad stokes and I would not really read too much of it.
My name is Zachary Townsend. I currently go to Brown University where I am in my fourth year. I concentrate in Applied Mathematics-Economics, Education Studies, and Public Policy.
I grew up mostly in New Jersey and will always consider Neptune City to be my hometown. In school I learned early that I liked almost everything there was to know and continue my near obsessive tendency toward knowledge to this day. I love reading books, although I buy many more than I read (the dangerous part of liking many things) and reading various news sources – particularly the New York Times, Wired, The Economist, Foreign Affairs and the MIT Technology Review.
Before Brown, I was educated in public schools. After being educated at Woodrow Wilson School, I attended the Communications High School of Monmouth County. My graduating class, which had 63 students, was the first to go to CHS. There I took college prep classes as well as classes in public speaking, visual communications, mass media, journalism, 3d animation, TV/radio, digital video, marketing, photography and graphic design. Although I do not plan a career in any of those fields, I loved my unique education and look forward to using the knowledge in whatever field I go in to. At CHS I was president of the entire student body (when there was four classes), editor and chief of the newspaper (not when I was running student government), Captain of Quiz Bowl, Tech Manager for Drama Club, etc etc, I was self important and did too much so I could go to Brown.
I have lived with my father, David, since I was ten, and he is a great. I believe we have fought less then six times since I have come to live with him. Also his drive to go back to school for both his bachelors and doctorate in his later 30’s should be an inspiration to many beyond myself. Never overbearing, he surrounded me with books, always explained things, and expecting the best from me, the same I hope to do for my children. He teaches at Pittsburg State, in Pittsburg, Kansas and does research I do not really understand. He is a Biopsychologist and Behavioral Neuroscientist, which sounds quite impressive.
I spent two summers in Northern California near Shelter Cove, which is out there in the wilderness. I spent one summer in Europe traveling. In high school, I went to Princeton to take film classes, as well as Brown and Harvard to do summer work for credit. Summer 2004 I interned at the Pallone for Congress Campaign as well as the Center for Civic Responsibility. I also previously interned for Morgan Stanley in operations.
In my first year at Brown, I was elected to a voting member and then Chair of the Communication Committee. In the spring of 2005 I won a general student body election to be Admissions and Student Services Chair. I was elected to be Vice President of the student body in Spring 06. Later in that semester, I then ran for President of the Student Body, losing to John Gillis. On UCS I combated a faculty vote to fundamentally change the grading system of the curriculum, received undergraduate student representation on major University committees, and received substantial funding for improved dining facilities, the creation of an IPTV program, housing renovations and construction, summer storage, and a pilot January Term program.
I write columns for the Brown Daily Herald where I previously copy edited. I was the Technology Chair of the Brown Democrats for 2005-2006. I use to play Rugby and after a concussion have been downgraded to intramural squash, football, and hopefully softball in the spring.
I have served on a variety of fun university committees. I have previously been on the Dean of the College Search Committee, the NCAA Recertification Committee, the Bookstore Review Committee, The Ad Hoc Social and Events Policy Committee, the Website Review Committee, and several small others. I am currently on the University Resources Committee which is responsible for recommending the annual operating and capital budget of over $700 million to the President, the College Curriculum Council which is the student–faculty committee that reviews the undergraduate curriculum, defines educational goals, approves courses, and evaluates whether the structures of the University can meet these goals, and the President’s Officer Conduct Review Board, which is an appointed committee that serves as board of review of incidents or allegations of excessive use of force, abuse, and the discharge of firearms by a university police officer.
I am the co-coordinator of Polaris Project Rhode Island a chapter of national organization that works to end human trafficking and modern-day slavery. I am also the elected Co-Chair of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking. In summer 07 I worked the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre in Sheffield, England. The UKHTC is a cross-agency initiative of the British government to fight Human Trafficking. I also was able to go to meetings around trafficking in Vienna, Berlin, and Warsaw. I also traveled to Greece and France.
I won a Royce Fellowship in 2006, a Liman Fellowship in 2007, an UTRA in 2006, the J.W. Saxe Public Service Prize in 2007, and the Samuel C. Lamport Prize for International Studies and the Gordon Lindsay Prize for my Applied Math-Economics Thesis in 2007. I was also named a DMI Scholar in 2007.
I can be emailed at zachary_townsend@brown.edu
November 7th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Two words, dear Ivy Gate
“Google Cache”
September 27th, 2009 at 6:27 am