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”:
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 antisemitism didn’t ruin confidence in Gay among the people who mattered to the Harvard board, but the plagirism did. Let that sink in.
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