Did Harvard President Claudine Gay resign because she was an accused plagiarist, or because of her poor answer about Hamas at the hearing last month?

Never heard about the plagiarism, but haven’t looked into her story that much. Was the plagiarism widely known? Will research it now.

I know she had a group of black academics advocating for her.

I am going to research more now.

I think the plagiarism one tipped the cart over.

Here is an article on Reason about it
https://reason.com/2024/01/02/claudine-gay-harvard-resigns-plagiarism-free-speech/

Looks like the pro-Israel lobby needed more heads to roll.

Don’t get me wrong, this woman sounds thoroughly mediocre in every way, and frankly university presidents have rarely been some godly tier of enlightened human beings, but plagiarism or not, she wouldn’t be stepping down if it hadn’t been for the ”[non-existent] genocide hearings”.

A lot of people wanted to hear “we will punish students who criticize Israel”; she wouldn’t say that so she had to go.

I don’t think she thinks her answer was poor. She seemed to have explained and defended some other high ideal and how she did it was true and just.

To me it sounded dumb and heartless. I’m no pro academic.

In resigning, my guess is the plagiarism issue was the last straw. I would like to think she resigned of her own volition out of respect to the esteemed position she had just vacated. But who knows really?

I just read the article in the NYTimes about it. I know that NY Times has a paywall and most people here can’t access articles there (unless I cut and paste them) but they posted a link to an online conservative site.

This is a portion of the article about it, and after that is the link to the site that has posted the plagiarism (w/comparison between the original work and Gay’s plagiarism):
The latest accusations against Dr. Gay were circulated through an unsigned complaint published Monday in The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online journal that has led a campaign against Dr. Gay over the past few weeks. The new complaint added additional accusations of plagiarism to about 40 that had already been circulated in the same way, apparently by the same accuser.

Support for Dr. Gay’s nascent presidency began eroding after what some saw as the university’s initial failure to forcefully condemn the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and some pro-Palestinian student responses. Outrage grew in early December after Dr. Gay gave what critics saw as lawyerly, evasive answers before Congress when asked whether calls for the genocide of Jewish people were violations of school policies.

https://freebeacon.com/campus/harvard-president-claudine-gay-hit-with-six-new-charges-of-plagiarism/

Her resignation letter from the
NYT…

————

Dear Members of the Harvard Community,

It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president. This is not a decision I came to easily.

Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries.

But, after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.

It is a singular honor to be a member of this university, which has been my home and my inspiration for most of my professional career. My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis.

Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.

I believe in the people of Harvard because I see in you the possibility and the promise of a better future. These last weeks have helped make clear the work we need to do to build that future — to combat bias and hate in all its forms, to create a learning environment in which we respect each other’s dignity and treat one another with compassion, and to affirm our enduring commitment to open inquiry and free expression in the pursuit of truth.

I believe we have within us all that we need to heal from this period of tension and division and to emerge stronger. I had hoped with all my heart to lead us on that journey, in partnership with all of you.

As I now return to the faculty, and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do, I pledge to continue working alongside you to build the community we all deserve.

When I became president, I considered myself particularly blessed by the opportunity to serve people from around the world who saw in my presidency a vision of Harvard that affirmed their sense of belonging — their sense that Harvard welcomes people of talent and promise, from every background imaginable, to learn from and grow with one another.

To all of you, please know that those doors remain open, and Harvard will be stronger and better because they do.

As we welcome a new year and a new semester, I hope we can all look forward to brighter days. Sad as I am to be sending this message, my hopes for Harvard remain undimmed. When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity — and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education.

I trust we will all find ways, in this time of intense challenge and controversy, to recommit ourselves to the excellence, the openness, and the independence that are crucial to what our university stands for — and to our capacity to serve the world.

Sincerely,
Claudine Gay

With all respect to Dr. Gay, that’s luke-warm bullshit.

Beautifully written, though.

If she’d only plagiarised her answer about Hamas she might still be in a job.

I was pretty annoyed with some of her answers during the hearing, but what was not shown over and over again like some other clips was she did say to her credit that in her own opinion she was repulsed by antisemitism and other forms of hatred (I’m paraphrasing).

I wasn’t ready to say she should be fired or resign. I heard today that she has received threats and just horrible horrible messages through email and social media, and I think anyone who literally threatened her should be arrested if they can be found. I am getting tired of this harassment and violence in our society.

As far as the plagiarism, what I heard was the accusation didn’t get a chance to actually be evaluated. She resigned before that was done.

Just awful that a war so far away can be so destructive here in the US. The people who love to destroy America are probably celebrating.

Being a cynic, I wonder what the advantage was for her to wait till ½/24, vs. resigning in 2023. When I worked in government, people who were retiring or quitting would usually wait until the new year so their vacation time and personal time would be granted and they’d be paid out for it (because they’d be leaving with the time unused). For Gay, I wonder if her contract pays her out when the new year comes, or the new semester comes, or maybe not.

Good question, @jca2 – she is staying at Harvard, so health insurance coverage wouldn’t be in iissue. It’s probably something monetary.

Sorry, I see my post above was typed wrong, and was supposed to read “½/24” not “½24.”

@elbanditoroso I wasn’t even thinking of health insurance.

This is the Genocidal, Apartheid-supporting Pro-Israel machine attempting to silence criticism of Israeli ethic cleansing of the Palestinians. History will look back on Dr. Gay’s hearing like it does the McCarthy hearings. The goal is a chilling effect on speech critical of Israel’s policies and war crimes. It’s hard to think of a more grotesque cause being so loudly championed in the mainstream.

To be clear, but for Israel’s ethic cleansing, nobody would give a shit about Dr. Gay’s plagarism.

@gorillapaws I have to admit I do not understand why members of congress were questioning the university presidents. You and I disagree on a lot of things regarding Israel, and I have serious issues with how some of the Ivy Leagues seem to be pushing an agenda over the last five to ten years rather than simply fostering civil discourse, but why it has become a political issue to the point that university presidents are being called in for questioning is beyond me.

My dad is quite liberal in recent years, he thought Bernie was great, he blames Netanyahu and the extreme religious right in Israel for almost everything happening in Israel now, but in recent years he has been worried about the change in his own university, U Penn. He receives their alum newsletter (or whatever it is called) and sees the change. My dad also taught for a while at Hunter College in NYC, he takes very seriously universities being a place for open discussion. As a side note, of course my dad worries about antisemitism in the US and sees “From the River to the Sea” as a call to get rid of Israel entirely, but he understands (so do I) that some people think it means something else.

Regarding the plagiarism, I don’t know if it would have been talked about at the national level or not. Do you mean Harvard would have ignored it? I have heard some discussion about her being one of the few, maybe the only, I don’t remember, Black females to reach that position, and so some people see this as an attack on her also because she is a woman and her race.

@JLeslie There’s a big difference between antisemitism and criticism of Israel (especially its policies and actions). There has been a huge effort to conflate the two for the past several decades, especially in the media to the point that Jews who are critical of Israeli policy get called antisemites themselves or “self-hating Jews.” I find that to be particularly grotesque and offensive. I think the goal is to suppress the massive protests against Israel on campuses all across the world (but especially in the US). What’s needed to accomplish this are policies on campus designed to punish speech critical of Israel. That starts by having Presidents of colleges and universities that are amenable to rewriting their policies to accomplish such a goal. How does that. happen? get some of the top university presidents dragged through the mud and forced to resign in disgrace. Now when the president of Nowheresville College in Podunk, Whereversville gets approached with a proposed draft of the “on campus protest policy” that forbids statements like “free Palestine” are they going to be confident that they didn’t botch a citation in something they published at some point in their career?

Like you, I’m very concerned about the rise in bonafide antisemitism. But you’ve got this psyco pro-Israel movement that’s bringing actual antisemites like Pastor John Hagee (who said in a sermon that God allowed Adolf Hitler to carry out the Holocaust to allow Jews to ultimately return to Israel) to speak at the Rally for Israel in DC. And the ones who are actually shooting up synagogues are all right wingers. They’ve got the narrative so warped that they’re allying with right wingers and believing the left are somehow antisemites (but never seem to explain how these swarms of antisemites on the left all wanted Bernie to be the first Jewish president). Furthermore Israel’s war crimes are being perpetrated using US made bombs paid for by you and me. We are complicit in the massacre in Gaza and in the West Bank. The blood of innocents is on our hands. That makes us a target for terror. Israel is making the world less safe for Jews and people in countries who support Israel’s crimes against humanity. I have Jewish family members and many Jewish friends who I love dearly that I worry about because of how Israel behaves.

“Our right to defend ourselves from extermination does not give us the right to oppress others.

Occupation entails foreign rule. Foreign rule leads to resistance. Resistance leads to repression.

Repression leads to terror and counter-terror. The victims of terror are mostly innocent people.

Holding on to the occupied territories will turn us into a nation of murderers and murder victims.

We must leave the occupied territories immediately.”

—Shimon Tzabar on September 22, 1967 (Ha’aretz)

@gorillapaws What you seem to be missing is the left is doing things that frighten Jews. The left cares about and obsesses about microaggressions against Blacks, LGBT, Asians, but doesn’t acknowledge at all the fear and trigger Jews experience.

Until the far left starts to understand that both Jews and Palestinians are small groups, both have been oppressed, killed, dragged from their homes, are minorities (unless you count the Palestinians in with other Arabs then they are part of a HUGE majority, but since other Arab countries seem to ostracize them I’ll say they are minorities) until that happens we will keep having part of the Democrats who do understand it siding with the Republicans on this.

There have been direct antisemitic threats on some college campuses. Not anti-Israel, I mean kill the Jews threats. Couple that with groups of people protesting for Palestine and as mentioned before From the River to the Sea Palestinians will be Free, or even Free Palestine, it feels fucking scary to a Jewish student.

What do you mean by Free Palestine? Or, what does end the occupation mean to you? To most Palestinians that means eliminate Israel.

Ask Palestinians in West Bank or Israel what From the River to the Sea means. 90% of them will say the whole area is Palestine and no more Israel. Even Palestinians who are fine with a two state solution still can tell you what that means. Just because liberals in the United States of America want to redefine it doesn’t matter, Southerners want to define the confederate flag as a wonderful emblem of Southern pride and hospitality, is that reason to say that Black kids shouldn’t be nervous if students in large groups protest with those flags in their hands? Even if their protest isn’t directly about Black students? For some reason even some professors don’t understand why it is so upsetting.

Jewish students are more likely to know the geography of Israel, half those kids protesting have no idea what they are talking about. Jewish students know about the very direct antisemitic threats, and actual violence, because it goes across our social media, emails, phone calls, texts like wildfire, while most of the country is oblivious to most of them. The over 100 emails that threatened synagogues a few weeks ago. The warning where I live when WS was meeting nearby. The people who are not Jewish have little to no idea.

If people want to protest to help the Palestinians they need to come up with better slogans and they need to emphasize diplomatic ways to peace rather than saying it’s ok that they blow themselves up to kill Israelis, that it’s ok that they send rockets daily into Israel, and that it’s ok that they tortured and butchered Israelis Oct 7th and took them hostage. That is not going to bring peace.

Why not protest the settlements or why not write on signs “Two State Peace” or something that doesn’t signify eliminating Israel?

I watched hours of interviews of Palestinians in West Bank, and the majority say they don’t want a two-state solution they want everything to be Palestine, they want the Jews who came from other places to go back to where they came from, and if they were born in Israel too bad. They say things like they have no problem with Jews, it’s the zionists they have a problem with. Do they speak freely? I think most do, some might be afraid to be completely honest. Even a lot of Palestinians in Israel want Israel to disappear, although you will find Palestinians in Israel who support Israel, you will find plenty who want it gone.

They need a leader who will broker peace against what a large amount of the Palestinians think they want.

Palestinians answering Free Palestine https://youtu.be/l5ocDyVaMt8?si=JZGKa9q8qymvqiql

Palestinians River to Sea https://youtu.be/hgwtQlwK-hA?si=XSfshhzEPMkdaPcn

Do Palestinians live in an apartheid state https://youtu.be/b3Qirao-NK8?si=ZejspKdKQUF9LLSf

@JLeslie I reject the conflation of Judaism with Israel. I think the film Israelism (audio is out of sync) does a pretty good job explaining how it has come to be and why it’s so problematic. I think it also showcases how there are powerful political interests that are trying to do so and why they would try to drag the university presidents down. It’s filmed before 10/7 so it doesn’t directly address any of that, but it does showcase the political element of the pro-Israel lobby that I believe is responsible for the attacks on these university presidents.

Ultimately, people should be allowed to express things publicly that you may disagree with or even find scary. Making specific threats and targeting people (e.g. painting a swastika on someone’s door) is not free speech. Attending a rally where people express political ideology you disagree with is protected speech. Everything the presidents said was accurate on that point.

As for what “Free Palestine” means to me? I think it can be interpreted in many ways. One would be a 2-state solution where Palestinians finally have the freedom to exercise sovereignty over their land and people. The other would be a 1-state solution where Palestinians would have the same freedoms as Israelis, possibly a right of return for descendants of the Nakba ethnic cleansing. Some might say that this might even require the expulsion of Israelis who arrived after 1948 and their descendants as well as reparations.

I think what they need is to have Israel be held to the standards of international law. I’m hopeful that the South African’s charge of genocde aigainst Israel in the ICJ will move forward and we might finally see Israel face serious consequences for their crimes for the first time in history.

@gorillapaws I’m talking about how it makes Jews feel.

I reject Biden was being racist when he called Obama articulate, but my guess is you cared about how it made Black people feel.

I agree being Jewish and being Israeli is two separate things. It also is intertwined. Just like I didn’t have relatives killed in Germany, but it still affects me. I probably did have relatives killed in Latvia and Russia, but I don’t know a specific story about a specific relative.

I believe you feel Free Palestine can mean many things. That’s exactly why the phrase should not be used. It is not clear the intention of the speaker.

As an American of course I like the idea of one Democratic state, but who controls it? Who organizes that government? The Palestinians at large won’t want to adopt the Israeli set up. The Israelis won’t want to give up the name Israel and at least for a while can’t trust Palestinians. Both sides don’t trust each other. I have always thought a two-state solution is probably the only way to peace.

Palestinian-Israelis have the right to be Israeli citizens, they can even serve in the army, but they are not forced to and that whole thing is tricky admittedly. Everything else to me seems to be bits of “racism.” Do you think America is an apartheid state? We have complaints of Black people being stopped more by police, stopped while driving, harder time getting jobs or contracts.

Where will the Jews go who came after 1948 and their children born and raised in Israel? Most of them would be stateless. Go back to Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Germany, Bulgari, Russia? They are not citizens there. Some never were citizens because they were Jews. Some of those countries are very antisemitic. Can you imagine if I had to go back to Latvia or Russia? Do you support birthright citizenship in the US Do you support DACA? If yes, why? DACA kids have parents without papers. Israelis came to Israel legally. The Palestinians live in Palestine in West bank and Gaza. Palestinians in Jordan live in a familiar culture, the Jordanians and Palestinians are basically the same people.

Everyone talks about how small Gaza is, what about how small Israel is? The only place in the entire world Jews know they can go to. Not to mention there are 2 million Arabs living in Israel, mostly Palestinian.

Hamas broke international law, I seriously doubt Israel will be found to have committed war crimes in their retaliation, I doubt disproportionately will apply, because the objective of getting rid of Hamas is something most of the world agrees needs to be done. Possibly, what the extremist Israelis have done in settlements in West Bank, if investigators can connect the Israeli government directly to it, that accusation of breaking international law will have some validity. That’s my take knowing what little I know about those laws.

@JLeslie We’re getting into the weeds from the original question but the Biden quote, I believe you’re referencing is:

“I mean, you got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

That’s just racist language, coming from a guy with racist policies and rhetoric. I don’t get worked up about feelings. Replace “African-American” with any other identifier and you’d have an equally problematic result. “Free Palestine” is a call for Palestinians to finally have basic human rights. If that sentiment is scary, then the person who requires the Palestinians to not have basic human rights to feel safe is the one who should do some soul-searching about why that’s true. It’s also why we can’t let the feelings of people dictate the political speech of other people.

@JLeslie “I agree being Jewish and being Israeli is two separate things. It also is intertwined.”

Intertwining them is a decision. One can decouple the two, and there are many Jews all over the world who reject Israel’s policies, actions and propaganda. That film does a good job covering the subject, I’d encourage anyone to watch it with an open mind.

“Where will the Jews go who came after 1948 and their children born and raised in Israel?”

Obviously, I think they should stay. My guess is that people who hold this sentiment would expect them to be taken in by the US and other western nations as refugees from a failed multi-generational settler-colonial campaign. Perhaps some might feel it acceptable to create a “Jewish Gaza equivalent” or a small territory where those Jews who arrived after 1948 (and their descendants) could live if they wanted.

I agree with you that a 2-state solution is likely the only way to peace, that or what Israel is currently pursuing, which is destroying all of Gaza (over 70% of all homes are already destroyed) and then allowing them to “voluntarily” leave (or be killed). Erasing the Palestinian people would certainly make things more peaceful for Jews in Israel.

As far as the apartheid stuff goes. I think you’ve been fed a lot of crap from Israeli propaganda. Are you familiar with Community Settlements? Large chunks of land are essentially impossible for Palestinian-Israeli citizens to buy because it gives racist communities the right to allow them in or not. It would be like requiring black people to get approval to buy a house from the local KKK community leaders, or be forced to buy land in less desirable places. You have the widespread denial of citizenship approvals resulting in hundreds of thousands of “stateless” second-class Palestinians.

“the Jordanians and Palestinians are basically the same people.”

That smells a lot like racist propaganda designed to erase the Palestinian identity. You Palestinians who have lived on the land for centuries are really just Jordanians and therefore we can “voluntarily” migrate you to Jordan and use your land for ourselves. For someone concerned about feelings, that’s worth reflecting on how you came to believe this.

@JLeslie ” The only place in the entire world Jews know they can go to.” I would argue that Israel is making the world less safe for Jews by engaging in horrific acts of violence against innocent people. I would argue that AIPAC is making the US less safe for Jews by helping Jan 6th Republicans win elections and aligning with right wing extremists who support Israel on one hand but also support bonafide antisemitic White Nationalists on the other (they’re fine with Israel bombing Arabs, but they hate Jews and would be happy if they were wiped from the planet).

As for the genocide charge, it’s an extensive document with lots of evidence. It’s not as simple as Hamas = bad, ergo annihilate tens of thousands of non-combatants is justifiable. Israel’s indiscriminate use of 2,000 pound bombs in Gaza is indefensible. We have a hard time justifying the use of 500 pound bombs in civilian areas.

Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.

There should be no Jewish ethno-state in the region.

There is only one genocide occurring in the area and it is the one against the Palestinians and the U.S. is funding it.

If you still don’t understand why people shout “Free Palestine!” then I don’t know what to tell you at this point.

@Demosthenes There should be no Jewish state, but there should be a Palestinian state? Is that your opinion? The Palestinian people get a state but not Jews. The Lebanese get a state, the Jordanians (I do see the Jordanians as a separate identity than Palestinian) and so on.

I understand why people shout Free Palestine, I’m asking people to understand both perspectives.

Your Free Palestine does mean eliminate Israel, while @gorillapaws is for a two-state. Got it.

Where do the Jews in Israel go? The US? Are you ok with letting the 7 million Jews in Israel come here? Can we actually give them a piece of land to have their own country here?

The horror of the Holocaust has led to this. And yet in none of the Holocaust survivors I have seen has the spark of their humanity been extinguished. That is something that has been achieved only with the foundation of the State of Israel. It is the most bitter of ironies.

@flutherother Is it? People seem to understand why Palestinians are angry, hurt, even homocidal. Jews in Israel have been fighting for freedom and safety for just as many generations if not more.

She should not have resigned. The punishment did not fit the “crime.”