A Kansas news operation has raised concerns of academic misconduct against Wichita State University’s President Richard Muma, who has denied the claims, calling them “deeply personal.”

On Monday morning, the Kansas Reflector reported that Muma’s 20-year-old doctoral dissertation lacked attributions for other authors’ work. 

Muma wrote his dissertation and completed his doctorate from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2004. During this time, he was the chair and a professor in the public health sciences and physician assistant departments at WSU.

In some areas of his dissertation, Muma has text repeated verbatim from other books or journals without the use of quotation marks, according to the Reflector’s story.

In a university release Monday morning, Muma said he learned of the allegations a month ago, saying that the reporter he spoke to “refused to share specific allegations until publishing his article today.”

“To be clear, I attributed and cited all sources in my dissertation, and I have complete confidence in the integrity and originality of my research,” Muma said in a university statement Monday morning, hours after the Reflector article. “These are technical oversights where text was reused, and those attributions did not have quotation marks, and I am taking steps to make corrections.”

In light of the allegations, the president said he called for the university to conduct an inquiry to weigh the validity of the claims. 

Shirley Lefever, who serves as the provost of the university, conducted the inquiry with the help of the university’s research officer John Tomblin, according to the statement from Muma. The review also had an external section, with a “leading expert in plagiarism.” Muma said the expert is unaffiliated with the university.

Muma said he was told that “less than 5%” of the dissertation contained text with “technical omissions.” 

Muma’s dissertation is 88 pages long, meaning that nearly five pages lacked proper attribution, according to the provost’s inquiry.

“The facts led to a determination that these were technical omissions that did not rise to the level of misconduct, and the matter was closed,” Muma said. 

The Kansas Board of Regents handles employment decisions related to university presidents in Kansas. 

In an email to The Sunflower, Matt Keith, KBOR communications director, reiterated Muma’s message.

“As (Muma) noted, an independent review conducted by an expert concluded that there was no academic misconduct in his doctoral dissertation. We have no further comment,” Keith wrote on the behalf of himself and KBOR President Blake Flanders.

Muma has not responded to The Sunflower’s request for an interview as of Monday afternoon.

Reporting gathered by the Kansas Reflector can be found here.