Claudine Gay resignation: Was she a plagiarist or an antisemitic?

By Matthew Ma

“The act of plagiarism is widely condemned as fraudulent because it entails both stealing someone else’s work and dishonestly claiming it as your own. It is crucial to bear in mind that even incorporating significant portions of text or replicating the structure of a paragraph can be deemed plagiarism. Essentially, when one plagiarizes, they are appropriating another’s intellectual property. It is worth noting that even using sizeable chunks of text or rephrasing someone else’s work without appropriate citation can qualify as plagiarism. In light of this, it can be said that Claudine Gay’s actions technically constituted plagiarism.”
The academic world is currently grappling with the fallout from the highly publicized Claudine Gay plagiarism scandal. This controversy has sparked a much-needed conversation about academic integrity and ethics. Claudine Gay, a renowned scholar and the President of Harvard University, has been accused of plagiarism in her 2018 book, “The Way We Weren’t: A Memoir.” The allegations against her arose when a fellow academic pointed out on social media that Gay had used passages from her own work in her book without proper citation. This prompted an investigation by Harvard University, which ultimately found Gay guilty of plagiarism. The investigation revealed that Gay had used several passages from her previously published articles and essays in her book without proper reference. While Gay initially denied the allegations, she eventually issued a public apology for her actions. This incident has raised several important questions about academic integrity and the consequences of plagiarism in the literary world. Many are debating whether or not Gay’s resignation from her position at Harvard was justified. The scandal has also sparked a larger conversation about the pressures of academic publishing and the importance of properly citing sources. The situation at hand raises a couple of questions that need to be addressed. First, did Claudine Gay actually plagiarize? Second, was her decision to resign from her position justified in light of the allegations against her? Third, what are the circumstances that led to Gay’s resignation? Lastly, was the resignation about plagiarism or an antisemitism?
After Hamas launched a devastating attack on Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 200 people hostage, a coalition of student groups at Harvard University released a statement blaming Israel for the violence. In the statement, they linked the attacks to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. They urged Harvard to condemn the continued destruction of Palestinian territories. The statement drew sweeping condemnation from business leaders, who called for the university to ban students whose groups signed the statement. The administration’s initial response was cautious. In a statement, the school’s President said they were “heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack.” However, several days after the Hamas attack, Claudine Gay released a statement condemning the “terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas” and affirming that no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership. The statement made several donors who support Israel cut ties with the university. By November 28, 2023, the US Department of Education launched an investigation into Harvard University for discrimination involving shared ancestry, an umbrella term that encompasses both antisemitism and Islamophobia. To date, Harvard is one of some 20 colleges and universities that the federal government has been investigating since the October attacks. A handful of school districts across the county are also being investigated.
As tensions intensified on campus, Gay and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were called to testify before Congress about disciplinary actions taken in the face of antisemitism and faculty hiring practices. When Representative Elise Stefanik asked Gay whether calling for the genocide of Jews was a violation of Harvard’s policies against bullying and harassment, Gay replied that it could be, depending on the context. Shortly afterward, Gay apologized for her response. The House of Rep asked Gay if Harvard would take disciplinary action against students or applicants who call for violent armed resistance against the state of Israel, including violence against civilians and the genocide of Jews. Gay responded that while she did see that speech as abhorrent and at odds with the value of Harvard, the university still embraces a commitment to free expression, even of views that are unpleasant, offensive, and repulsive. However, she also said that when that speech crosses into conduct that violates Harvard’s policies against bullying and harassment, incites violence, or threatens safety, then action would be taken. Her testimony fueled calls for her resignation. In the following days, Rabbi David Wolpe, a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Divinity School, resigned, citing both antisemitic events on campus and Gay’s testimony. Following this incident, a bipartisan group of 72 lawmakers sent a letter to the governing boards of Harvard, Penn, and MIT urging them to remove their university leaders. Despite the uproar surrounding Gay’s testimony, it was accusations of plagiarism in her scholarly work that led to her downfall. In early December, activist Christopher Rufo published allegations about Gay in his newsletter, including instances of missing citations and verbatim copying of other scholars’ work without proper attribution. More apparent cases of plagiarism surfaced in the following weeks, leading to increasing calls for Gay’s resignation. Even billionaire hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman accused Gay of plagiarizing her academic work on social media and claimed, without evidence, that she was only hired to fulfill diversity requirements. Gay denied the allegations and maintained the credibility of her scholarship. Despite the accusations, she did request corrections to two scholarly articles that were published in 2001 and 2017. Following an independent review of Gay’s writings by Harvard, it was found that a few instances lacked proper citations. However, the university determined that there was no violation of their standards for research misconduct. As a result, Gay will be requesting corrections to the two articles in question to include the necessary citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.
The following issues pertain to the specific factors or circumstances that led to Claudine Gay’s departure. In December, the US House Committee on Education expanded its ongoing investigation to include allegations of plagiarism against Gay. The committee declared that it had initiated an inquiry into Harvard University’s handling of credible charges of plagiarism against Gay over the past 24 years. Committee Chair Virginia Foxx wrote a letter to Penny Pritzker, the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, requesting information on Harvard’s response to the allegations. A day later, a spokesperson from Harvard announced that they had reviewed more of Gay’s academic work and that the President intended to correct additional instances of “insufficient citation” in her 1997 Ph.D. dissertation. Harvard University did not accuse Gay of “plagiarism” when reviewing her work. The university confirmed that Gay’s previous mistakes did not meet the criteria for punishable misconduct under its research regulations. On January 2, 2024, Gay resigned from her position just six months after taking office, citing “racial tensions” as the reason for her departure. The question is, did Claudine Gay actually plagiarize, and was her resignation justified? In order to understand this question, it’s essential to define what plagiarism is.

Rev. Ma, S.J, is a Jesuit Catholic priest and PhD candidate in public and social policy at St. Louis University in the state of Missouri, US