Saturday, February 8, 2025

Despite admitting several plagiarisms by Claudine Gay, Harvard reaffirms support for embattled president

Harvard insisted that in this “tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay.”

and • December 12, 2023
Claudine Gay
Claudine Gay [credit – harvard gazette]

The board of Harvard University has expressed unflinching support for its president, Claudine Gay, despite admitting plagiarism allegations.

“As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University,” said a statement on Tuesday signed by all of the board members except Ms Gay.

Well-known writer Christopher Rufo, on his X account on Sunday, revealed that the Harvard President “plagiarised multiple sections of her PhD thesis, violating Harvard’s policies on academic integrity.”

This comes amidst calls for her resignation by donors and politicians after her controversial comment before a House committee last week about antisemitism.

“In academic writing, it is considered plagiarism to draw any idea or any language from someone else without adequately crediting that source in your paper. It doesn’t matter whether the source is a published author, another student, a website without clear authorship, a website that sells academic papers, or any other person: Taking credit for anyone else’s work is stealing, and it is unacceptable in all academic situations, whether you do it intentionally or by accident,” Harvard said in a statement on its website.

However, the Havard board backed its embattled president, saying she remains the best person to help the institution address societal issues.

Although, after intense scrutiny, the board cleared the president of violating the school’s policy, it still called for corrections in the form of citations and quotation marks to be made in two of the affected articles.

“Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” the institution added. “So many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, and the university’s initial statement should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation.”

The institution’s statement added that calls for genocide “are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values” but that Ms Gay “has apologised for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the university’s fight against antisemitism.”

The university disclosed that per Ms Gay’s academic writings, the university became aware “in late October of allegations regarding three articles.”

“At President Gay’s request,” said the Harvard statement, “the Fellows promptly initiated an independent review by distinguished political scientists and conducted a review of her published work.”

“On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation,” it added. “While the analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.”

Harvard insisted that in this “tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay.”

“At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated,” stated the board. “Harvard’s mission is advancing knowledge, research, and discovery that will help address deep societal issues and promote constructive discourse, and we are confident that President Gay will lead Harvard forward toward accomplishing this vital work.”

We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.

More from Peoples Gazette

Abubakar Kyari

Agriculture

FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology

The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Katsina State

Politics

Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku

“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

Governor Alex Otti

States

Gov. Otti tasks Abia state executive council on enhanced performance

Mr Otti said periodic assessments and leveraging past achievements are vital to improving governance and institutional efficiency.

PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU

NationWide

Tinubu running transparent govt devoid of religious, ethnic sentiment: Aide

“I want to assure you that the Tinubu administration is non-partisan; it is devoid of ethnic or religious sentiments,” said Ms Omotayo.

Lanre Ogunlowo

States

Ogun CP urges motorists to exercise patience

Ms Odutola said the CP went on an unscheduled security and safety tour to Ewekoro when he met a gridlock on the Lafarge dual carriageway.

Iddo Bridge

States

FG announces Iddo Bridge height restrictions

The comptroller added that the ultimate goal was to improve the bridge and provide better service to the public.

Pigs

NationWide

Nigeria leads in pork production in Africa, says association

The minister urged the association to identify areas of interest that could drive higher productivity.

Mosquitoes

States

Over one million children received malaria prevention drugs in Plateau in 2024: Group

He said that the intervention was part of the state government’s efforts to eradicate malaria by 2030.