BOSTON — Harvard University has shed new light on its ongoing investigation into plagiarism allegations against former president Claudine Gay, including that an independent body has recommended a broader review after substantiating some of the complaints.
In a letter Friday to a congressional committee, Harvard said it learned of the plagiarism allegations against its first black female president on Oct. 24 from a New York Post reporter. The school contacted several authors Gay is accused of plagiarizing, and none objected to her language, the school said.
Harvard subsequently appointed the independent body, which focused on two articles by Gay published in 2012 and 2017. It concluded that they are “both sophisticated and original” and found “virtually no evidence of deliberately claiming findings” that were not its own.
However, the panel concluded that nine of the 25 allegations found by the Post were “of primary concern” and consisted of “paraphrasing or reproducing the language of others without quotation marks and without sufficient and clear attribution.” It also found one instance where “snippets of double-speak and paraphrasing” could be interpreted by Gay as her taking credit for the work of another academic, although there is no evidence whatsoever that this was her intention.
It also found that a third article, written by Gay during her first year of graduate school, “contained identical language to that previously published by others.”
These findings prompted a broader review of her work by a Harvard subcommittee, which ultimately led to Gay making corrections to the 2012 article and to a 2001 article that emerged in the broader review. The subcommittee presented its findings on December 9 to the Harvard Corporation, Harvard’s board of directors, concluding that Gay’s “conduct was not reckless or intentional and therefore did not constitute research misconduct.”
Gay’s academic career first came under scrutiny after her testimony in Congress about anti-Semitism on campus. Gay, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT President Sally Kornbluth came under criticism for their legal responses to New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who asked whether “calling for genocide of Jews” would violate comply with the codes of conduct of the universities of applied sciences.
The three presidents were called before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce to respond to allegations that universities were failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of anti-Semitism worldwide and the fallout from the increasingly intense Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Gay said it depended on the context, adding that when “speech turns into behavior, that is against our policy.” The response faced swift backlash from Republican and some Democratic lawmakers, as well as the White House.
The House committee announced days later that it would investigate the policies and disciplinary procedures of Harvard, MIT and Penn.
The company initially sided with Gay, saying a review of her scientific work found “a few instances of inadequate citation” but no evidence of research misconduct. The plagiarism allegations continued to surface in December, and Gay resigned this month.
