Harvard University President Dr Claudine Gay who is barely out of one controversy is now facing a new charge. A report has alleged that Dr Gay plagiarised parts of her 1997 Ph.D. thesis.
City Journal writer Christopher F Rufo, along with contributing editor of American Conservative Magazine Chris Brunet, released parts of the thesis and contrasted it with another paper.
EXCLUSIVE: @RealChrisBrunet and I have obtained documentation demonstrating that Harvard President Claudine Gay plagiarized multiple sections of her Ph.D. thesis, violating Harvard's policies on academic integrity.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 10, 2023
This is a bombshell. 🧵
The duo alleged that Gay has lifted an entire paragraph “nearly verbatim” from a paper by Lawrence Bobo and Franklin Gilliam’s, while passing it off as her own paraphrase and language. They substantiated this by sharing an image of the part in question and contrasting it with the study they claim Gay copied from.
First, Gay lifts an entire paragraph nearly verbatim from a paper by Lawrence Bobo and Franklin Gilliam’s, while passing it off as her own paraphrase and language.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 10, 2023
This is a direct violation of Harvard's policy: "When you paraphrase, your task is to distill the source’s ideas… pic.twitter.com/t6enHp3dN9
In the thread post on X, Rufo and Brunet alleged that Gay had violated Harvard’s policy on plagiarism throughout her thesis document “using the work by Bobo and Gilliam as well as passages from Richard Shingles, Susan Howell, and Deborah Fagan, which she reproduces nearly verbatim, without quotation marks”.
Gay repeats this violation of Harvard's policy throughout the document, again using work from Bobo and Gilliam, as well as passages from Richard Shingles, Susan Howell, and Deborah Fagan, which she reproduces nearly verbatim, without quotation marks. pic.twitter.com/K75YPeZwky
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 10, 2023
They pointed out that at some parts Gay has not used quote marks while copying language from material published by Carol Swain. The appendix, they alleged, is taken directly from a book by Gary King.
Later in the paper, Gay also uses identical language to Swain, without adding quotation marks, as required. "Since the 1950s the reelection rate for House members has rarely dipped below 90 percent," reads Swain’s book, which is the same, excepting an added comma, to the language… pic.twitter.com/p6aM8776Hh
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 10, 2023
Rufo said that Harvard’s policy states that “students who, for whatever reason, submit work either not their own or without clear attribution to its sources will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College.
These are flagrant violations of Harvard's plagiarism policy, which states that students who commit plagiarism will suffer "disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College." The same standard should apply to the university president. pic.twitter.com/Q2UviANylT
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 10, 2023
“Students who have been found responsible for any violation of these standards will not be permitted to submit course evaluation of the course in which the infraction occurred,” the policy states.
Rufo demanded that the same policy should be applied by Harvard to the university president too just as it does to the students.
Gay’s thesis advisor has reportedly called the accusation “absurd”. “There is not a conceivable case that this is plagiarism. Her dissertation and every draft I read of it met the highest academic standards,” said Professor Gary King.
The entire case is garnering attention on social media and beyond thereby bringing into question the dwindling credibility of the Ivy League institute.
This is the second such controversy in the past week that has plunged the credibility of Harvard University as well as its President.
Calls are being made demanding the removal of Dr Claudine Gay from the position of President of Harvard University after she refused to give a yes or no answer at a house committee hearing on antisemitism on campuses.
On 5th December at the congressional hearing on “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism” in Washington, DC, Congresswoman Elise Stafanik confronted the Presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT.
She asked, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate the university’s code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment” demanding a yes or no answer.
Dr Claudine Gay responded saying that it “depends on the context”. She laid down the context when asked saying, “targeted as an individual, targeted at an individual”.
She added, “Antisemitic rhetoric when it crosses into conduct, it amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct and we do take action.”
The Congresswoman reprimanded Gay and asked the latter to resign. She also said that the answers were unacceptable across the board owing to the similar replies given by the President of University of Penn Liz Magill and President of MIT, Sally Kornbluth.
Penn President Liz Magill was forced to resign from her position where as Gay has only issued an apology so far saying, “I am sorry. Words matter. When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret.”
“I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures. What I should have had the presence of mind to do at that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged. Substantively, I failed to convey what is my truth,” Gay said.
However, as per reports, Harvard faculty members have put their weight behind Gay. A petition has been signed by more than 600 Harvard faculty members asking the governing body to not sack the President.
