The Claudine Gay Cancellation

[ZiprHead]

Plagiarism charges downed Harvard’s president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage

Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation followed weeks of mounting accusations that she lifted language from other scholars in her doctoral dissertation and journal articles.

apnews.com

American higher education has long viewed plagiarism as a cardinal sin. Accusations of academic dishonesty have ruined the careers of faculty and undergraduates alike.

The latest target is Harvard President Claudine Gay, who resigned Tuesday. In her case, the outrage came not from her academic peers but her political foes, led by conservatives who put her career under intense scrutiny.

Reviews by Harvard found multiple shortcomings in Gay’s academic citations, including several instances of “ duplicative language.” The university concluded the errors “were not considered intentional or reckless” and didn’t rise to misconduct. But the allegations continued, with new ones as recently as Monday.

Conservatives zeroed in on Gay amid backlash over her congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus. Her detractors charged that Gay — who has a Ph.D. in government, was a professor at Harvard and Stanford and headed Harvard’s largest division before being promoted — got the top job in large part because she is a Black woman.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who helped orchestrate the effort against Gay, celebrated her departure as a win in his campaign against elite institutions of higher education. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote “SCALPED,” as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans and also used by some tribes against their enemies.

“Tomorrow, we get back to the fight,” he said on X, describing a “playbook” against institutions deemed too liberal by conservatives. His latest target: efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in education and business.

Chrostopher Rufo is the same douche that started a mischaracterization of CRT to great effect.

 

[repoman]

Is there any record of what Claudine Gay has said about what happened to Carole Hooven and her statements that gamete production determine sex?

 

[ZiprHead]

Is there any record of what Claudine Gay has said about what happened to Carole Hooven and her statements that gamete production determine sex?

What does this have to do with the OP?

 

[Tigers!]

Are you saying that is doesn't matter about plagiarism in dissertations?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Are you saying that is doesn't matter about plagiarism in dissertations?

He wrote a whole post. If they didn't say that, then they didn't say that. They are simply indicating the person who targeted Gay, also contributed to the alt-right CRT hysteria. Rufo is the next alt-right Doctor, aftter James O'Keefe went away. Plagiarism is an issue. It is extremely doubtful Rufo gave a fuck about plagiarism.

 

[James Brown]

 

[thebeave]

She had to go. Its extremely bad optics for the president of one of the most prestigous universities in the US to have blatant, numerous instances of plagarism in her academic history. How can you make a case for disciplining students who commit plagarism, when the president has done it and gotten away with it? If she had a lot of unpaid parking tickets or paid a housekeeper with cash under the table, that would be forgiveable, IMHO. Not this.

 

[TomC]

She had to go. Its extremely bad optics for the president of one of the most prestigous universities in the US to have blatant, numerous instances of plagarism in her history. How can you make a case for disciplining students who commit plagarism, when the president has done it and gotten away with it? If she had a lot of unpaid parking tickets or paid a housekeeper with cash under the table, that would be forgiveable, IMHO. Not this.

If the accusations are true I agree.

But I also know how much lying and misrepresentation goes on in certain circles. The highly public nature of all this strongly suggests political witch hunt to me. Maybe not, but maybe so.
Tom

 

[thebeave]

She had to go. Its extremely bad optics for the president of one of the most prestigous universities in the US to have blatant, numerous instances of plagarism in her history. How can you make a case for disciplining students who commit plagarism, when the president has done it and gotten away with it? If she had a lot of unpaid parking tickets or paid a housekeeper with cash under the table, that would be forgiveable, IMHO. Not this.

If the accusations are true I agree.

But I also know how much lying and misrepresentation goes on in certain circles. The highly public nature of all this strongly suggests political witch hunt to me. Maybe not, but maybe so.
Tom

As I recall, its been investigated by Harvard and others and everyone is in agreement that the plagarism is there. Its not hard to compare her works with those of others and to see the similarities, without the necessary citations.

 

[ZiprHead]

As I recall, its been investigated by Harvard and others and everyone is in agreement that the plagarism is there. Its not hard to compare her works with those of others and to see the similarities, without the necessary citations.

As I understand it, the citations were included. She forgot the quotation marks. Take that with a grain of salt.

 

[TomC]

As I recall, its been investigated by Harvard and others and everyone is in agreement that the plagarism is there. Its not hard to compare her works with those of others and to see the similarities, without the necessary citations.

Maybe so, I'm not defending her much less plagiarism.

But with nothing more than the Rufo quote in the OP to go on it looks suspiciously like a politically motivated hatchet job.
Tom

 

[laughing dog]

I cannot comment on any possible motivations of any involved. I do know that questions concerning plagiarism have been circulating around Professor Gay's work for a number of weeks prior to her command performance in front of a Congressional committee.

The alleged plagiarism may be intentional on her part or it may be the result of sloppiness, or it may be the result of being human. I know that it is possible to be unaware one is mimicking a source. While Professor Gay is responsible for attention to detail in her dissertation, so is her committee members.

As an aside, did it strike anyone else as interesting that the only 3 presidents of prestigious institutions of higher learning that Congress could get to "testify" were women?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

View attachment 45175

This.

 

[Derec]

Are you saying that is doesn't matter about plagiarism in dissertations?

When you hire by race (aka using "affirmative action"), is evaluating performance and conduct by race that far off?

 

[Derec]

I cannot comment on any possible motivations of any involved. I do know that questions concerning plagiarism have been circulating around Professor Gay's work for a number of weeks prior to her command performance in front of a Congressional committee.

In reality she should never have been hired for the position. She was unqualified and only hired based on her race and gender, and the toxic "DEI" ideology pervasive at these universities.
Claudine Gay Is Gone, but Diversity Ideology Still Plagues Harvard

Gay was manifestly unqualified for the position, with only a fraction of the scholarly accomplishments of her predecessors at Harvard and peers at other universities. She was obviously selected as a symbol for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideology that Harvard wishes to promote, not because of her merit as a scholar.[...]
The growing number of plagiarism charges against Gay focused more attention on her lack of scholarly merit as Harvard’s president. Like the old Catskills joke about the food being horrible and with such small portions, academic fraud characterized the meager research output Gay had produced.[...]These plagiarism charges were more than sufficient reason for her removal as president, but the fact that she remains as a Harvard professor does not resolve the lowering of research standards that her misconduct represents. In addition, Harvard’s willingness to keep Gay as president until the instances of plagiarism became too numerous raises concerns about the double-standards with which Harvard and other universities enforce their rules. They would have sanctioned a student immediately—and for far less.[...]Progress toward resolving these issues at Harvard and elsewhere could not be done without the removal of bad actors like Gay and the board members who enabled her. But the public campaign to fire Gay has not really fixed any of Harvard’s serious problems. Bloated DEI bureaucracies continue to promote the discriminatory ideology that people deserve different treatment depending upon the racial, ethnic, or sexual identities that place them in “oppressor” or “oppressed” categories. Standards for research integrity continue to weaken and be upheld differently depending on the preferred status of researchers and their findings. And the selective enforcement of codes of conduct that make universities more hostile to anyone deemed to be an oppressor, including Jews, white men, and believing Christians.

Well said. People should be treated as individuals, not given special treatment because they check "diversity" boxes.
Note the loud chorus of race warriors alleging "white supremacy" or "racism" against people who dare criticize Gay. Like the president of the formerly veritable NAACP.
NAACP president roasted for defending Harvard president: 'You should be ashamed of yourself'

“Enough is enough, @Harvard President Claudine Gay is a distinguished scholar and professor with decades of service in higher education. The recent attacks on her leadership are nothing more than political theatrics advancing a white supremacist agenda.”

As an aside, did it strike anyone else as interesting that the only 3 presidents of prestigious institutions of higher learning that Congress could get to "testify" were women?

Maybe there are a disproportionate number of women leading these "prestigious institutions of higher learning" because they practice hiring based on race and gender more than by qualifications and competence. They certainly did not show any during the disastrous hearings where they failed to take a stand against calls for genocide against Jews made by so-called "pro-Palestine" (in reality pro-Hamas) students on their campuses.
Btw, this is a good parody of the state of so-called "prestigious institutions of higher learning" these days...

 

[TomC]

Are you saying that is doesn't matter about plagiarism in dissertations?

When you hire by race (aka using "affirmative action"), is evaluating performance and conduct by race that far off?

When you evaluate performance with race, gender, or whatever, and refer to Affirmative Action as the basis,
Aren't you still using race, gender, and whatever as criterion? Seems that way to me.

Don't get me wrong. I see continuing Affirmative Action, after it's become obsolete, as a drag on the accomplishments of highly qualified and excellent people. But still...
Tom

 

[Derec]

When you evaluate performance with race, gender, or whatever, and refer to Affirmative Action as the basis,
Aren't you still using race, gender, and whatever as criterion? Seems that way to me.

I do not quite understand your point. Could you rephrase?

 

[Harry Bosch]

Are you saying that is doesn't matter about plagiarism in dissertations?

When you hire by race (aka using "affirmative action"), is evaluating performance and conduct by race that far off?

As an aside (and I don't consider you to be a rabid right winger) what is the behind the effort of the right to go after private enterprise companies in your opinion? Of course, Harvard is a non for profit. But we're seeing the right going after Disney, Budweiser, and all the companies with a DEI department (all of Wall Street basically)! I'm a business owner. If I believe that having a DEI office is good for business, who is it to the right to overrule my decision?

 

[Tigers!]

Are you saying that is doesn't matter about plagiarism in dissertations?

When you hire by race (aka using "affirmative action"), is evaluating performance and conduct by race that far off?

As an aside (and I don't consider you to be a rabid right winger) what is the behind the effort of the right to go after private enterprise companies in your opinion? Of course, Harvard is a non for profit. But we're seeing the right going after Disney, Budweiser, and all the companies with a DEI department (all of Wall Street basically)! I'm a business owner. If I believe that having a DEI office is good for business, who is it to the right to overrule my decision?

Perhaps its like "progressives" going after bakers and florists. Picking on someone who says/does something they do not like and consider them to be vulnerable.

 

[TomC]

its like "progressives" going after bakers and florists. Picking on someone who says/does something they do not like and consider them to be vulnerable.

Really, kinda this.
A sleazebag Colorado lawyer drives past 20 bakeries to get to the one "she" can sue.
Lies on the court documents, claiming "she" ordered a birthday cake. Gets a $500 settlement, and puts "her" name on the map of sleazebag lawyers.

Tom