Confirmed: Claudine Gay Forced Out at Harvard Because Of Plagiarism Scandal, Not Campus Antisemitism
NY Times confirms: The antisemitism didn’t ruin confidence in Gay among the people who mattered to the Harvard board, but the plagirism did. Let that sink in.
You remember Claudine Gay, the Harvard President who came under severe criticsm after her abysmal performace at a congressional hearing over campus antisemitism. The President of U. Penn also lost her job over it, and the MIT president remains under pressure.
But it took more to push Gay over than it took at U. Penn, where Liz Magill had no other scandals. At Harvard, it took an embarrassing and humiliating drip-drip-drip of plagiarism accusations and evidence to force Gay out.
We covered the slow squeeze multiple times, focusing on how damaging it was the to the Harvard “Brand”:
- Congressional Campus Antisemitism Hearing: “The three presidents were, frankly, fairly pathetic”
- Harvard President Apologizes for Failing to Convey ‘My Truth’ During Congressional Hearing
- Harvard University President Claudine Gay Facing Plagiarism Allegations
- Harvard Attorneys Protected Claudine Gay After New York Post Confronted School in October About Possible Plagiarism in Her Works
- Harvard = Bud Light
- More Plagiarism Allegations Unveiled Against Harvard President Claudine Gay
- Harvard President Gay Requesting Three Corrections to Dissertation After School Found More ‘Duplicative Language’
- New York Post: Harvard Covered for Claudine Gay Before the School Investigated Plagiarism Allegations
- It’s important to Harvard that its brand survive Claudine Gay. It’s important to America that it doesn’t.
- Harvard President Claudine Gay Starts New Year With Six New Plagiarism Allegations
- Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns, Plays Victim and Blames Racism
Without the plagiarism, Gay probably would still be president, I noted:
I think it was all of that, but it was also the plagiarism accusations, which were very substantial despite what Harvard says. They were not trivial. And when you have the head of an academic organization, probably the most prestigious in the world, who has credibility problems for her own academics, I think that’s a problem. So I think it was a combination. I don’t think if it was just the antisemitism issue, that she would be gone.
The NY Times belatedly has come to the same conclusion in an article purporting to reveal the inner workings of the Harvard corporate board, How Harvard’s Board Broke Up With Claudine Gay:
For weeks the board had stood by its embattled president as she dealt with withering criticism of her tepid response to antisemitism on campus, her disastrous testimony before a House panel and mounting allegations of plagiarism in her academic work.
WAIT RIGHT THERE. The paper of record declares that not even withering criticism of the tepid response to antisemitism on campus would have been enough. I was right. Please clap.
The Times continues [note to readers, I’m being extra careful to credit quotes in all articles about Gay’s plagiarism]:
But within two weeks, the once strong support had begun to dissolve, according to interviews with a dozen people with knowledge of the discussions, including those who had spoken directly with Dr. Gay, Ms. Pritzker and other board members or were briefed on their thinking and actions. They requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak about the deliberations publicly. As the board members flew to ski towns and beaches for the holidays, they had a dramatic change of heart about their president….
On Dec. 19, new allegations of more than 40 examples of plagiarism in Dr. Gay’s academic work emerged, first reported in conservative media outlets. When she sent her latest plan to the board the next day, some members told her they liked it, but to others, it showed that she didn’t understand the urgency of the expanding crisis, according to people with knowledge of board members’ thinking.
Dr. Gay has stood by the overall integrity of her work. Harvard has said she didn’t commit “research misconduct,” though she did offer to make minor changes to some of her prior writings in the wake of the allegations.
Cracks in the board’s support were starting to show. Especially concerned was Timothy R. Barakett, Harvard’s treasurer and a relatively new member of the corporation. From early on, he didn’t think keeping Dr. Gay was tenable. He told his fellow board members that Dr. Gay’s poor leadership and academic conduct might disqualify her from the presidency, those who spoke with him said.
Mr. Barakett didn’t think Dr. Gay’s apologies got it right and argued that she was failing to take full responsibility for her plagiarism, according to donors, professors and others who spoke with board members….
The board had been ground down by new allegations of plagiarism, the drumbeat of news articles, and the barrage of criticism and advice from influential strangers and loved ones.
For weeks, the focus of board conversations had been on finding a way to keep Dr. Gay and end the crisis on campus. But by the day after Christmas, that had changed, people briefed on the events said. The board members agreed that they were dealing with a crisis of leadership and that the best path forward for Harvard was without Dr. Gay in the president’s chair. Everyone agreed it was time for Ms. Pritzker to call her.
The NYT report confirms @MarcNovicoff’s main thesis in the Washington Monthly: “what led to the demise of the first Black president of Harvard was that she had become an embarrassment among people whom the Harvard Corporation respects.”https://t.co/g2bVxF0xIa
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) January 6, 2024
The antisemitism didn’t ruin confidence in Gay among the people who mattered to the Harvard board, but the plagirism did. Let that sink in.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
The antisemitism was the hammer the plagiarism was the nail
Harvard must have terrorist donors and professors. Remember, there are two major fatwas against Hamas for their violations of the teachings of Islam.
One condems terrorist behavior generally, issued during the time of ISIS and Al-Qaeda
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/70000-clerics-issue-fatwa-against-terrorism-15-lakh-Muslims-support-it/articleshow/50100656.cms
And a more recent one specifically against Hamas for its violation of the Geneva conventions and poor governance of Gaza.
https://fatwacouncil.org/en/
The Islamic Fatwa Council (IFC) is the first global governing judicial body specializing in deducing Fatwas from indisputable and moderate Islamic references, and is a representative legal body of all sects of Islam.
The Islamic Fatwa Council (IFC) has ruled on the conduct of Hamas (Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah), charging the Islamist entity with violating the laws of the Holy Quran and teachings of the Noble Prophet Mohammad (Peace be Upon Him).
https://fatwacouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/English-Version-1.pdf
LOL.
No, there are not. Neither of the ones you cite is “major”.
The first one is allegedly supported by 70,000 “clerics” and 1.5 million Moslems, all followers of an early-20th-century Indian Sufi. The Barelvi movement’s significance within the general Islamic world is close to nil.
The second one is issued by the ” Islamic Fatwa Council”, a fringe organization that few Moslems have ever heard of, and even fewer support.
So while it’s nice that some Moslems love peace and condemn terrorism, it’s not significant.
That is interesting and a nice step I think but, don’t take this the wrong way, so? The Hamas terrorists think it’s fine to burn, rape, torture and murder. What is a few thousand people saying it’s wrong going to mean to them? All they will say is that The Islamic Fatwa Council are not real Muslims.
She should have been fired for her choice of eye-wear alone.
Leftism gets you Antisemitism
Diversity and mediocrity gets you plagiarism
Claudine was an affirmative action admit. I suppose we will never know what her SAT and GRE scores were.
Is there any doubt that they were far to low to be admitted to anything other than a junior college?
Michael Gay, her uncle, has had a 4 decade career as an engineer and manager in E&C firms. His cement company in Haiti? Given the long history of corruption in Haiti, one would wonder, but his record in the US indicates a competent, honest professional. As such, I would give him the benefit of the doubt on that.
I haven’t found a vitae for her father, but Claudia’s Gay wiki indicates her father was with the Army Corps of Engineers in Saudi Arabia. Her mother was a nurse.
Which indicates that Claudia Gay doesn’t come from a family of dummies.
Not a genius, but my guess is that she probably could have been admitted to a state university without any affirmative action assistance. My guess is that her SATs were in the 1050-1250 range. Which would never have gotten a whitebread admitted to the Ivy League.
Affirmative action definitely put her in a position well above her pay grade. Her dissertation advisors did her no favor by not catching her plagiarism. Ditto the journal referees that vetted her plagiarized papers. Had they caught them, maybe she might have published an honest doctorate and published honest papers.
She isn’t dumb, but it was apparent from Day One that President of Harvard was a position that was well above her real pay grade.
Her testimony to Congress, where she could just parrot back what she had been told to say, showed that those who assumed she was an empty suit affirmative action hire, were quite correct.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudine_Gay
https://naahpusa.org/profile/michael-gay-p-e/
She was just as much a child of the elite as an affirmative action hire, that was just icing on the cake.
Now think about all the people that have a problem with the antisemitism but haven’t said a peep about the anti white racism that has totally permeated education and our society.
Not just education, pretty much all Gov., Non Profits and corporations are anti white, and especially male.
How Claudine Gay Canceled Harvard’s Best Black Professor. (mini-doc)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8xWOlk3WIw
Claudine Gay has a cameo appearance in the video, spouting some DEI buzzwords. She is as unimpressive in the video as she was before Congress. Give her something to recite and memorize, as she is apparently incapable of improvising anything worthwhile to say. At least she doesn’t need a teleprompter, as you-know-who needed.
There’s nothing wrong with Hamas support that competing voices wouldn’t fix. It’s a competing voice problem.
Or wouldn’t fix. You don’t know which way a competition is going to come out.
In either case the disagreement becomes domesticated. Two courses of study instead of just one.
“There’s nothing wrong with Hamas support that competing voices wouldn’t fix. … Or wouldn’t fix.”
You are correct — both times. It wouldn’t fix it.
It’s not a “voice” problem — it’s a “what in God’s name are they thinking?” problem.
That’s a relief. I was worried Harvard might actually take steps to seriously address its problems. I feel better now. You go Harvard. Don’t listen to the ignorant peons. Learn nothing and barrel ahead on full DEI stupid.
She needs her Doctorate pulled!
There are far more sham PhD’s out there.
And Ed.D.s…
I don’t think anyone with an IQ over 70 ever thought of Gay as any sort of intellectual or academic. I do think that many are convinced she is some sort of alien, though – not a Haitian sort of alien but some kind of weird looking extra-terrestrial. The crew cut does not help.
She didn’t want to sport the Full Pressley.
Why is she still employed at Harvard? Why is she earning about $900,000? The Harvard Corporation is clearly a bunch of out-of-touch losers. I blame them alone for keeping this albatross on staff.
The Corporation was probably cowed by the idea of a very messy and public lawsuit if they cancel her contract. To them $900k is a drop in the bucket. I bet they have a nice understanding with her that she will continue to be paid for the remainder of the contract and then will suddenly need time off for personal reasons or take a job elsewhere.
When she has tenure as a full professor? What’s the duration of that contract?
“Why is she still employed at Harvard? Why is she earning about $900,000?”
U-Penn El Presidente (“Presidenta?”) similarly retained faculty position, at around a cool million / yr.
diver64 mentioned the stick — big mess if they try to boot her the whole way. Carrot, for the H, is you need to give these people on point a soft landing or they won’t take the risky gig. Why would someone with a tenured 900k faculty job take an admin gig that might get them fired?
“The antisemitism didn’t ruin confidence in Gay among the people who mattered to the Harvard board, but the plagirism did. Let that sink in.”
Here’s something else to let sink in:
“More than one board member had children studying at Harvard. At least one worried that other students would harass them because of their parents’ roles on the board and the bad press,”
In other words, board member(s) did the right thing not because it was the right thing, but because they didn’t want their kids hazed for their parents’ obvious hypocrisy.
Gay’s snarky dismissal of her/Harvard’s blatant double standards over free speech—students free to voice genocidal anti-Semitic slogans while being punished for “microaggressions” or “misgendering,” etc., should have been met with her immediate dismissal from the university, not just the presidency.
I pray Musk and Ackman will soon become Musk, Ackman, Jacobson, and Rufo. That would be a combined force to be reckoned with.
Hopefully 10/7 will result in the decimation of Hamas as well as the entire DEI/CRT Education/Media Complex and the anti-White, anti-Asian, and anti-Semitic hate it foments.
Long story short, claudine gay is black muslim terrorist apologist who cheated her way to $900k salary.
Its the harvard way.
I think it hasn’t been made clear enough that the $900K is not her presidential salary; she’s not getting that, now that she’s not president any more. The $900k that has been reported is an estimate of what she was being paid before she became president; since she has gone back to her old position she is presumably going to get the same salary as before.
Or more.
“Prior to being named president just six months ago, Gay earned $879,079 as a faculty of arts and sciences dean in 2021 and $824,068 in 2020, according to records published by the university.
“Her new position was not specified Tuesday, but she is expected to receive a salary comparable to what she previously received — if not higher.
“It was also unclear how much of her presidential salary of roughly $1 million Gay would be entitled to after only serving in the post for six months.
“Her predecessor, Lawrence Bacow, pulled in $1.3 million annually before his departure, according to the Harvard Crimson.” — https://nypost.com/2024/01/02/news/claudine-gay-set-to-keep-800k-salary-despite-resigning/
Harvard rewarding DEI hack for cheating.
She was rewarded for taking one or more for the team. She served as metaphorical body armor for people behind the scenes who didn’t want to take blame or reponsibility for their policies and decisions. Think of her as Brandon Light, wait Brandon Dark, wait. She was a proxy troublemaker at best. She could get by as an intellectual lightweight because I doubt that she ever made an important decision or contributed meaningfully to the Harvard mission. She was likely told what position to hold by the board as their spokesperson. Her only skill was being a black female, as a white male in her position would be expected to take accounatability for statements and actions (and most likely to contribute as well).
IMHO, as an alumnus, I think Oberlin suffers from the same problem. Anyone who sees the Koppel interview and doesn’t question how and why she is in that position is part of the problem. Imagine having her as your public defender. =8^O But to a Marxist institution, she is perfect.
It will eventually come out (or perhaps they’ll keep it hidden) that it was big donor and political alumni pressure that forced the Corporation’s hand after the holidays.
They had no issues with Gay before that; they knew her pitiful level of scholarship and her affirmative action skillset (“I am black and angry.”) I’m also sure she was a terrible administrator and utterly in over her head as the head of a concern as large as Harvard..
Still, her progressive check-boxes were perfect. The next president will also check those same or equivalent boxes. The competency box alone will remain unchecked.
So a serial plagiarist cannot be president of Harvard, but can be a highly paid professor there. I think conservative commentators should not let this fade away. Hold the college’s feet to the fire by constantly demanding it explain this.
I will be shocked if the expelled students aren’t putting together a massive class-action suit. If anything, Faculty should be held to a higher standard. As my dad taught us, it is rarely the crime, and always the cover-up.
Confirmed: Claudine Gay not out….will continue with huge paycheck for nothing.
The Pritzker family has really had a great couple of weeks. First, few people are registering guns in conformance with Gov. Pritzker’s latest gun control mess; then this; and then the Epstein disclosures about the head of the corporation that controls Hilton Hotels.
“The antisemitism didn’t ruin confidence in Gay among the people who mattered to the Harvard board, but the plagirism did.”
Not really. Consider: Gay wore two hats, a) Harvard Prez and b) Harvard faculty member. As Prez her task was administration, with academic work way down the list. But by firing her as Prez, she is sent back to the job where she can commit more plagiarism in the future(and who doubts that she will try.) The proper punishment for the plagiarism would have been to can her as faculty member, and keep her as Prez. That done, the Harvard Corporation could then have canned her as Prez for her anti-Semitic bigotry.. Gone from Harvard, no prestige, much smaller payout.
The Corporation chose otherwise, a sure tipoff that scholarship means just enough lip service, to con the public, but no big deal, ‘scholarship’ is all bunk anyway.