HARVARD PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY Faces Plagiarism Probe Amidst Calls for Corrections

Harvard President Claudine Gay is facing increased scrutiny as more corrections to her past work are requested and a House committee expands its investigation into Harvard to include allegations of plagiarism. In a statement to CNN, a Harvard spokesperson mentioned that the university has reviewed more of Gay's academic work and that the president plans to update her 1997 PhD dissertation to address additional instances of "inadequate citation." Although Harvard did not explicitly accuse Gay of plagiarism, the university stated that her past errors did not violate its research misconduct rules.

The latest revisions, initially disclosed by The Harvard Crimson, add to the corrections Gay issued last week for two scholarly articles she wrote in the 2000s. However, a CNN review published on Wednesday found that Gay's previous requested corrections did not address even more blatant examples of plagiarism in her earlier academic work, including her dissertation.

A spokesperson for Harvard declined to comment on the expanding House probe.

A growing plagiarism investigation

The Harvard Corporation, the universitys top governing board, said last week that at Gays request it launched an independent review of her published work in late October.

Harvard confirmed on Thursday that the independent review did not include Gay's dissertation, as the allegations at the time were focused on her published works. In response to fresh plagiarism allegations, Harvard stated that its subcommittee had reviewed the dissertation and found one instance of missing citation or quotation mark, which had already been identified in a published paper and has since been corrected. Additionally, two other examples of duplicative language without appropriate attribution were also identified.

The university spokesperson stated that President Gay will be revising her dissertation to address the inadequate citations. Despite the recent discoveries, Harvard asserts that Gay did not engage in any misconduct.

According to a Harvard spokesperson, the subcommittee and the Corporation determined that while Gays inadequate citations were unfortunate, they did not amount to research misconduct. The review of Gays work was based on Harvard's Interim Policy and Procedures for Responding to Allegations of Research Misconduct, which outlines the criteria for what qualifies as misconduct. The policy specifies that in order for an action to be classified as "research misconduct," it must involve a significant deviation from accepted practices, be committed intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly, and be proven by a preponderance of the evidence.

House expands its probe

The US House Committee on Education and the Workforce has expanded its current investigation, originally focused on the growing cases of antisemitism on college campuses, to also examine accusations of plagiarism against Gay. This comes from a recent communication from Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina.

Harvard University's handling of credible allegations of plagiarism by President Claudine Gay over 24 years is now under review by the committee, as stated by Foxx. The seriousness of plagiarism allegations against a top school official at any university is cause for concern, but especially so at Harvard, a top educational institution in the country.

The charges of plagiarism against Gay initially began with conservative activists and were later reported by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication. These allegations came after her congressional testimony on antisemitism at Harvard's campus.

President Gay has recently made revisions to two papers that she authored in 2001 and 2017.

According to Foxx, "Harvard holds its students to high academic and ethical standards." She also mentioned that in the 2021-22 school year, the Harvard College Honor Council looked into 42 cases of plagiarism, 35 allegations of exam cheating, and 19 other violations of the Honor Code, as stated in the council's annual report.

The report indicates that out of 100 cases, 70 resulted in a finding of responsibility and led to academic probation or mandatory withdrawal. Foxx raises concerns in the letter about whether the university applies the same standards to its faculty and president.

The Republican committee chair has asked for a written response by December 29, as well as specific documents related to plagiarism and the independent university review. Additionally, the chair has requested a list of any disciplinary actions taken against Harvard faculty or students for academic integrity violations or plagiarism since 2019. In a previous statement, Gay maintained the integrity of her scholarship, stating that she has always upheld high academic standards in her work.