REVISED (with footnotes/links): Plagiarism charges lead Claudine Gay to resign as President of Harvard
After withstanding an ambush by Elise Stefanik when testifying before a Committee of the House on December 5, 2023, and receiving backing from the Harvard Corporation on December 11,1 Claudine Gay was forced to resign as President of Harvard University on January 2, 2024 as a result of charges of plagiarism.
John McWhorter of the New York Times published a devastating op-ed column on Gay’s plagiarism on December 21, 2023.2 He also pointed out that her qualifications were not commensurate with those of previous Harvard presidents or those of her peers at other leading universities, and suggested race may have played an important role in her initial selection to be president of Harvard.
McWhorter presented an overwhelming case for her departure.
On December 22, Eliot A. Cohen published an extremely critical column in The Atlantic,3 also charging plagiarism and calling for her resignation or dismissal.
One day later, on December 23, Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post joined a growing chorus calling for Gay’s departure.4
On January 3, 2024, Gay published a defiant op-ed in the New York Times5 in which she asserted,
It is not lost on me that I make an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety about the generational and demographic changes unfolding on American campuses: a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution. Someone who views diversity as a source of institutional strength and dynamism. Someone who has advocated a modern curriculum that spans from the frontier of quantum science to the long-neglected history of Asian Americans. Someone who believes that a daughter of Haitian immigrants has something to offer to the nation’s oldest university.
The demands for Gay’s resignation grew after she and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) answered Elise Stefanik’s loaded question (regarding whether they would sanction students calling for the genocide of Jews) in a lawyer-like manner, succinctly stating the current law of free speech under the U.S. Constitution.
While it was the plagiarism charges that forced Gay to resign on January 2, it is also true that, in addition to charges of being soft on anti-semitism, she faced strong opposition from some because of Harvard’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies which, like those at other universities, have become quite controversial.6
Although President Gay’s resignation would appear warranted on the plagiarism charges alone, there remains an urgent need for open discussion between proponents and opponents of DEI policies.
The crux of the debate seems to be over whether or not universities (or corporations) should emphasize diversity goals over the goals of excellence and scholarly achievement (or its administrative equivalent). Appointments at a number of universities now require applicants for positions to include DEI statements as a part of the application process.
Critics decry this practice as favoring some ethnic groups over others, and the substitution of “diversity” (understood to refer to some but not all ethnic groups) for quality and excellence as criteria for selection.
DEI is a term that summarizes the position of some proponents in the debate.
Critics could come up with acronyms of their own. For example, they might speak of
EOEME
Equal Opportunity for Everyone, Meritocracy and Excellence
In this formulation, the debate might boil down to:
Equal Opportunity for Everyone (all groups) v. Equity of Opportunity (favoring some groups but not all).
Meritocracy and Excellence v. Diversity and Equity of Results (for some groups but not all).
EOEME proponents might oppose DEI statements as components of applications for university or other positions, or for tenure.
DEI proponents might oppose the elimination of race or other ethnic identities as a factor to be considered in hiring and making academic appointments.
EOEME proponents would probably favor free speech and oppose any limitations based on perceptions that speech can be hurtful to members of certain groups. They would likely also oppose the concept that students or others should be protected from bad or evil ideas, in books, in the classroom, or anywhere else.
These are sharp differences. Let the debate continue, in an atmosphere of real free speech where all ideas can be expressed and receive a respectful hearing.7
As for ex-president Claudine Gay, she will be OK. She has retained her tenured position at Harvard, and according to reports could be earning as much as $900,000 per year.
James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
See also
James Rowles, “Scandalous attacks on South Africa and the International Court of Justice—With links to videos of ICJ hearings on January 11 and 12, 2024,” Trenchant Observations, January 14, 2024.
See James Rowles, “Rush to Judgment: Internet and other mobs, canceling leaders without due process, and the Rule of Law in America,” Trenchant Observations, December 12, 2023.
John McWhorter, John McWhorter. “Why Claudine Gay Should Go,” New York Times, December 21, 2023.
Eliot A. Cohen, “Harvard Has a Veritas Problem; President Claudine Gay is in a tough spot. The Harvard Corporation deserves to be in a much tougher spot,” The Atlantic, December 22, 2023.
Ruth Marcus, “Harvard’s Claudine Gay should resign,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023 (7:00 a.m. EST).
Claudine Gay, “What Just Happened at Harvard Is Bigger Than Me,” New York Times, January 3, 2024.
See John McWhorter, “Claudine Gay Was Not Driven Out Because She Is Black,” New York Times, January 8, 2024.
James Taranto, “The Harvard of the Unwoke; University of Florida President Ben Sasse has a theory of how higher ed succumbed to execrable ideas—and thoughts on reforming it. Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2024 (2:03 pm ET).
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