Harvard University Chancellor's Resignation: Suspicions of Academic Plagiarism and the Regression of Diversity in American Colleges and Universities

According to Xinhua News Agency, on January 2, local time, Claudina Gay, president of Harvard University in the United States, issued a statement announcing her resignation as president of Harvard University. In her statement, Guy said she had witnessed tensions and divisions at the school in recent months weakening bonds of trust and raising doubts about her commitment to opposing hate and upholding academic rigor. After communicating with members of Harvard's Board of Trustees, she decided to step down as president, which was in the best interests of Harvard.

Harvard University Chancellor Claudina Gay surging images data map

In July 2023, Gay became president of Harvard University, the shortest-serving president since the university's founding in 1636. She was also the first black woman to lead an Ivy League school, with critics questioning whether her race subjected her to different standards, and a Harvard investigative committee found that Guy had miscited sources in academic papers.

Harvard University said that the university's provost and chief academic officer, economist Alan A. Alan M. Garber will serve as interim principal. Guy will remain on the faculty at Harvard.

Last December, Harvard University President Gaye, University of Pennsylvania President Magill, and MIT President Korn Bruce participated in congressional hearings and drew criticism for their stance on "anti-Semitism" on campus. University of Pennsylvania Chancellor Liz Magill resigned last month. Gaye's resignation has intensified discussions in the United States about the shaping direction of free speech, diversity, and the nation's education. Harvard's Board of Regents noted in a statement that Harvard University and U.S. higher education have recently faced a series of unprecedented challenges and escalating controversies and conflicts. While Guy acknowledged her mistakes and took responsibility, she "showed extraordinary resilience in the face of severe and sustained personal attacks," the statement said.

Academic plagiarism?

Guy was the first black female principal of an Ivy League school whose parents were Haitian immigrants, and as an expert on government representation of minorities, her tenure was considered a breakthrough moment in Harvard's history. However, after the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, American campuses were filled with disagreements and various protests over the Palestinian-Israeli issue, which also raised concerns about campus safety.

At the hearing last December, Guy and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology raised controversy, and they largely disagreed with the characterization of threats to kill Jews as bullying on campus from the standpoint of protecting free speech. At a congressional hearing, New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik posed a number of hypothetical questions to Guy and two other college presidents.

"At Harvard, is calling for genocide of Jews a violation of Harvard's rules on bullying and harassment? Yes or no?" Guy replied, "Probably violated, it depends on the circumstances." ”

Similar statements by Gay and two other university presidents caused an uproar on social platforms. Although they made it clear that they would punish the bullying and harassment, it still did not quell the trouble.

Shortly after the hearing, the House Education and Workforce Committee launched an investigation into the three schools and later expanded its investigation to include allegations of academic plagiarism against Gay. Subsequently, more than 70 members of Congress signed a letter calling on Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to remove the three presidents. Under pressure from many parties, Penn President Magill resigned on December 9, 2023, but MIT's governing body expressed "full and unreserved support" for President Kornbrus.

On the 12th of the same month, Harvard Corporation, one of the board of trustees of Harvard University, expressed unanimous support for Gay, but the multiple academic plagiarism accusations she faced became the last straw that "crushed" Gay.

Last October, in response to media questions about Gay's scholarships, Harvard executives said Gay had asked Harvard to conduct an independent review. A panel of three political scientists unaffiliated with Harvard, as well as a subcommittee of the Board of Trustees, reviewed all of Gay's published works from 1993 to 2019.

But the attention of the conservative media has put Gay's work under more scrutiny. In the past few weeks, Washington Free Beacon, an American conservative online magazine, has led a "censorship campaign" against Gay, citing more than 40 "allegations" that Gay has been involved in plagiarism of academic works. The allegations have raised questions about whether Harvard requires its president to adhere to the same academic standards as its students.

Some scholars have expressed skepticism about the plagiarism allegations, saying that Guy does not credit himself for the original ideas or data of others, but simply quotes the jargon and conventional language of political science. After further review, Harvard University management announced on December 20, 2023, that Gay would submit three updated versions of his paper, with the addition of citations for direct and indirect citations. But Harvard again said the omissions did not constitute research misconduct.

Notably, Guy is also facing pressure from donors. Len Blavatnik, a billionaire, businessman and philanthropist who has donated or pledged about $270 million to Harvard in recent years, has paused his donation after the incident, saying he will not continue until he sees Harvard take action to prevent anti-Semitism on campus, according to a spokesperson.

"Diversity" is going backwards

On the Harvard campus, a section of faculty and students expressed frustration with the "political movement" against Guy and the diversity he represents in higher education. Hundreds of faculty members signed an open letter asking Harvard's Board of Trustees to resist pressure to remove Gaye.

"It's a scary moment. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of history, race and public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School, said, "Republican members of Congress have declared war on the independence of colleges and universities, just as DeSantis did in Florida, where he pursued many anti-leftist campus policies." Gay's resignation only emboldened them. ”

Some professors have criticized the way Harvard handles allegations of political assault and plagiarism. Alison Frank Johnson, a professor of history at Harvard, said she was "very upset." "Instead of making decisions based on established academic principles, we were besieged by the public," she said, "and instead of listening to the opinions of academics in Gay's field about the importance and originality of his research, we heard ridicule and resentment on social platforms." Instead of following the university's established procedures, we had a company allow its so-called advisors to conduct vetting using cryptic and undisclosed methods. ”

Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights activist in the United States, said that behind Gay's resignation was an attack on black leaders, especially women, as "an attack on diversity, equity and inclusion."

In fact, conservatives across the U.S. have sought to scrap programs designed to promote diversity on campus and underrepresented students. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to prohibit colleges from considering race in admissions halted efforts to promote diversity in colleges and universities.

Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP's Fund for Legal Defense and Education, said, "The attacks against Guy have been relentless and bias has been exposed. ”

In Guy's resignation letter, she defended her scholarly work and suggested that she was the target of highly personal and racist attacks. "In all of this, it is painful to doubt my commitment to confronting hatred and to uphold academic rigor — two of my fundamental values as a human being, and to be personally attacked and threatened by racial hostility — and to be incited by racial hostility to my personal attacks and threats. She wrote.