A charge of plagiarism could lead to the loss of one Iowa State alumni’s degree.

ISU officials are charging Judith A. Graham with plagiarizing portions of her doctoral dissertation in 1989, according to the Dean’s office of the ISU Graduate College.

The dissertation, “The Shaker Children’s Order,” focused on children of the Shakers, a group of people belonging to a religious sect where the members live and work together in communities.

If proven guilty, Graham’s degree could be revoked. This revocation would be a rare case for ISU, said George Karas, Associate Dean of the Graduate College. He added that as far as he knows, Iowa State has not had charges of this nature before.

“Generally these sorts of cases are very rare at any university. At least for as long as I’ve been here, I haven’t been involved in any,” Karas said.

Morton Adler, Graham’s attorney, said that a charge has been made by the University and no decision has been made whether Graham, who now resides in Maine, is guilty.

“That will all come out when they have a hearing. As I understand it, she did not deliberately engage in plagiarism,” Adler said.

John Anderson, associate director of university relations, said that the situation began at the June 8, Board of Regents meeting. “Iowa State requested confirmation from the Board of Regents to conduct a review into the case,” Anderson said.

Anderson added that discussing the issue of a particular review is where it gets kind of “sticky.” “We really aren’t at liberty,” Anderson said.

Karas said that the university was allowed to conduct a hearing and to consider the charges. “The regents determined that we in fact had the right to do this. So we will proceed,” Karas said.

Attorney Paul Tanaka, ISU Director of Legal Services, is handling the case for Iowa State. He declined to comment on the case.