USC President Caslen’s grad speech has wording nearly identical to another speaker’s

A portion of a commencement address by University of South Carolina President Robert Caslen matches almost word-for-word a passage from a famous speech given seven years ago by a retired military leader.

Caslen’s May 7 speech included a passage about perseverance, courage and character that resembles a 2014 speech given by retired Navy Adm. William H. McRaven at the University of Texas at Austin. A book about that speech became a best seller.

The State posted a transcription of Caslen’s 2021 commencement speech into four online plagiarism detectors and each of them said the words were plagiarized. FITSNews first reported on the similarities between the two speeches.

Caslen acknowledged Monday in an email to students, faculty and staff that he used the quote from McRaven without attribution and apologized to the retired Navy Admiral, whom Caslen said he knows and respects.

“I am truly sorry. During my remarks in our weekend commencement ceremonies, I shared a well-known quote from Admiral William McRaven and failed to cite him as its original author and speaker,” Caslen said in the email. “I was searching for words about resilience in adversity and when they were transcribed into the speech, I failed to ensure its attribution. I take full responsibility for this oversight.”

Here is a transcription of the Caslen speech in question, which The State obtained by watching a video USC posted to Facebook of the commencement ceremony. The part of the speech that matched McRaven’s begins at the 2:38:00 mark in the video.

“Know that life is not fair, and if you’re like me, you’ll fail often. But if you take some risks, step up when times are toughest, face down the cowardly bullies and lift up the downtrodden, and never, never give up — if you do those things the next generation and the generations to follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today. And what started here, today, will indeed change the world for the better.”

Here is a transcript of McRaven’s speech, according to an archived news release from the University of Texas:

“Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often. But if take you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up — if you do these things, then the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today. And what started here will indeed have changed the world — for the better,” McRaven said.

McRaven is the retired four-star Navy general and former head of Joint Special Operations Command who oversaw the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. From 2015 to 2018, he served as the chancellor of the University of Texas system.

USC’s honor code defines plagiarism as the “use of work or ideas without proper acknowledgment of source.” Students whom USC determines, through its internal, judicial system, committed plagiarism are subject to punishments that range from taking a workshop on ethics and the honor code to suspension and expulsion, according to USC’s website.

The passage that resembles McRaven’s speech is the second issue to surface from Caslen’s commencement speech. He also referred to USC graduates as alumni of the “University of California,” The State previously reported.

The State has reached out to USC for comment.

This story was originally published May 10, 2021 at 1:27 PM.