Plagiarism Standards at Harvard: The Claudine Gay Story

[Catcherinthetoast]

@Catcherinthetoast

This will likely never get to a courtroom for exactly this reason.

I suspect her statement will be perfunctory and I suspect we will hear little else as I am sure her separation agreement has a full NDA.

Damage control at its highest level.

[hebegebe]

@Catcherinthetoast

I suspect her statement will be perfunctory and I suspect we will hear little else as I am sure her separation agreement has a full NDA.

Harvard students just received an email from her re her resignation. As you said, it was perfunctory.

[jym626]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/business/claudine-gay-harvard-president-resigns?cid=ios_app
Claudine Gay to resign Harvard presidency: Harvard Crimson

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

Did it say she wanted to not be a distraction, or that she wanted to spend more time with her family?

[slyone]

What alumni just received:

Dear Members of the Harvard Community,

It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president. This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries. But, after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.

It is a singular honor to be a member of this university, which has been my home and my inspiration for most of my professional career. My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis. Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.

I believe in the people of Harvard because I see in you the possibility and the promise of a better future. These last weeks have helped make clear the work we need to do to build that future—to combat bias and hate in all its forms, to create a learning environment in which we respect each other’s dignity and treat one another with compassion, and to affirm our enduring commitment to open inquiry and free expression in the pursuit of truth. I believe we have within us all that we need to heal from this period of tension and division and to emerge stronger. I had hoped with all my heart to lead us on that journey, in partnership with all of you. As I now return to the faculty, and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do, I pledge to continue working alongside you to build the community we all deserve.

When I became president, I considered myself particularly blessed by the opportunity to serve people from around the world who saw in my presidency a vision of Harvard that affirmed their sense of belonging—their sense that Harvard welcomes people of talent and promise, from every background imaginable, to learn from and grow with one another. To all of you, please know that those doors remain open, and Harvard will be stronger and better because they do.

As we welcome a new year and a new semester, I hope we can all look forward to brighter days. Sad as I am to be sending this message, my hopes for Harvard remain undimmed. When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity—and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education. I trust we will all find ways, in this time of intense challenge and controversy, to recommit ourselves to the excellence, the openness, and the independence that are crucial to what our university stands for—and to our capacity to serve the world.

Sincerely,
Claudine Gay

[parentologist]

They can afford it. Had her only sin been lacking the moral backbone to recognize and name pure evil when queried, she could have survived this, or taken another high level academic administration job. But with the exposure of her “scholarship” as a string of plagiarism, I think her career is over.

[roycroftmom]

I agree, but some posters keep insisting that her infractions were minor in the academic world-if that is truly the case, she should get other employment quickly.

[YoLo2]

@slyone

As I now return to the faculty…

That’s what she was able to negotiate with the Corporation in return for her quick resignation.

[hebegebe]

As Claudine Gay’s personal statement has already been posted, here is the statement from the Corporation:

Dear Members of the Harvard Community,

With great sadness, we write in light of President Claudine Gay’s message announcing her intention to step down from the presidency and resume her faculty position at Harvard.

First and foremost, we thank President Gay for her deep and unwavering commitment to Harvard and to the pursuit of academic excellence. Throughout her long and distinguished leadership as Dean of Social Science then as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences – where she skillfully led the FAS through the COVID-19 pandemic and pursued ambitious new academic initiatives in areas such as quantum science and inequality – she demonstrated the insight, decisiveness, and empathy that are her hallmark. She believes passionately in Harvard’s mission of education and research, and she cares profoundly about the people whose talents, ideas, and energy drive Harvard. She has devoted her career to an institution whose ideals and priorities she has worked tirelessly to advance, and we are grateful for the extraordinary contributions she has made – and will continue to make – as a leader, a teacher, a scholar, a mentor, and an inspiration to many.

We are also grateful to Alan M. Garber, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, who has served with distinction in that role for the past twelve years – and who has agreed to serve as Interim President until a new leader for Harvard is identified and takes office. An economist and a physician, he is a distinguished and wide-ranging scholar with appointments at Harvard Medical School, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. We are fortunate to have someone of Alan’s broad and deep experience, incisive judgment, collaborative style, and extraordinary institutional knowledge to carry forward key priorities and to guide the university through this interim period.

These past several months have seen Harvard and higher education face a series of sustained and unprecedented challenges. In the face of escalating controversy and conflict, President Gay and the Fellows have sought to be guided by the best interests of the institution whose future progress and well-being we are together committed to uphold. Her own message conveying her intention to step down eloquently underscores what those who have worked with her have long known – her commitment to the institution and its mission is deep and selfless. It is with that overarching consideration in mind that we have accepted her resignation.

We do so with sorrow. While President Gay has acknowledged missteps and has taken responsibility for them, it is also true that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks. While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her through disgraceful emails and phone calls. We condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms.

The search for a new president of the university will begin in due course. We will be in further touch about the process, which will include broad engagement and consultation with the Harvard community in the time ahead.

For today, we close by reiterating our gratitude to President Gay for her devoted service to Harvard, as well as to Provost Garber for his willingness to lead the university through the interim period to come. We also extend our thanks to all of you for your continuing commitment to Harvard’s vital educational and research mission – and to core values of excellence, inclusiveness, and free inquiry and expression. At a time when strife and division are so prevalent in our nation and our world, embracing and advancing that mission – in a spirit of common purpose – has never been more important. We live in difficult and troubling times, and formidable challenges lie ahead. May our community, with its long history of rising through change and through storm, find new ways to meet those challenges together, and to affirm Harvard’s commitment to generating knowledge, pursuing truth, and contributing through scholarship and education to a better world.

The Fellows of Harvard College

Penny Pritzker, Senior Fellow
Timothy R. Barakett, Treasurer
Kenneth I. Chenault
Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar
Paul J. Finnegan
Biddy Martin
Karen Gordon Mills
Diana L. Nelson
Tracy P. Palandjian
Shirley M. Tilghman
Theodore V. Wells, Jr.

[yikkblue]

Harvard likely will look to hire another DEI person. Which is totally fine, as long as said person is strong academically and does not have the baggage Gay does.

[parentologist]

HOW can she teach, when her academic dishonesty would have merited an undergrad honors board penalty of suspension for ONE instance, and expulsion for repeat offenses. Gonna be yet another divisive lightning rod. I can just see it - the protests in favor of her, the protests against. Those who flock to her classes to support her, those who refuse to take her classes due to her academic dishonesty. Can you just imagine the honors board hearings where students say, “i did no worse, once, and you wanna suspend me, but she did at least as bad, repeatedly, as a grad student and professor, and she stays on faculty here? Why?”

[Catcherinthetoast]

She won’t be teaching. She will be on faculty for a set period getting paid so the board doesn’t have the spectacle and or risk of a large one time payout.

Don’t know that for sure but experience would suggest as much.

[YoLo2]

@hebegebe

“While President Gay has acknowledged missteps and has taken responsibility for them…”

Let’s keep in mind that Harvard’s/Gay’s initial response was to deny all allegations as baseless and threaten to sue the heck out of the NY Post if they published.

[marlowe1]

Another narrative will soon be spun - that her ouster was the doing of racists. For that reason I had hoped she would stay for a while, unfit as I believed her to be. The Harvard Corporation should have stuck to its guns. However, when they initially announced that they had full faith and confidence in her, you knew the end was near. That’s the kiss of death many a major league manager has gotten from the top brass that installed him and are about to disinstall him.

[HelicopterParent1]

@yikkblue

Harvard likely will look to hire another DEI person.

Putting the plagiarism stuff aside (which is a big ‘put aside’ because I think it was almost exclusively the plagiarism stuff that did her in, rather than anti-semitsm/congressional testimony), I actually feel for Gay and take no pleasure in her dismissal.

She was hired to execute on a DEI agenda, and that she did faithfully, including prohibiting speech deemed offensive to that particular community). She did the job she was hired for. The blame rests with Pritzker and the rest of the board.

I could care less about the skin color or sexual orientation of the next president. It’s their mandate that will be interesting.

[superdomestique]

“As I now return to the faculty, and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do, I pledge to continue working alongside you to build the community we all deserve.”

Did she resign from Harvard or just from the Presidency?

[Rivet2000]

@slyone

When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity—and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education.

I too hope we will see a moment of reawakening - to the importance of honesty and integrity.

I also hope that Harvard finds a way to rise above its dead-last ranking for student free speech and open inquiry by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

[superdomestique]

Harvard needs a huge reputational save…my money is the Corporation has a call into Obama…a quick fix for the virtue signaling set.

[Rivet2000]

What is more interesting to me is how our universities respond. I have long felt that one of the few remaining areas where we (the US) have an edge is with our university system - we still have the best in the world. But lately, it seems, many have just strayed from the academic excellence that differentiate them from most other schools.

We have gotten to the point where students can finish their class on “micro aggressions” in the morning only to shut down opposing thoughts and speakers in the afternoon. The funny thing about that is that the students are not even aware of the hypocrisy in their actions.

[mtmind]

@Rivet2000

I also hope that Harvard finds a way to rise above its dead-last ranking for student free speech and open inquiry by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Ironically, Dr. Gay’s Congressional testimony was completely in line with the supposed values of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Hypocrisy abounds, but not in the direction that many believe.