The Boston Globe published an editorial piece on Monday (December 18) calling out Harvard for its "confusing" message on plagiarism after the university supported its embattled president Claudine Gay amid allegations she plagiarized past academic writings.
Gay faced scrutiny last week after media outlets reported several instances of alleged plagiarism in her previous writings. However, the Harvard Corporation said that, while an independent academic probe discovered "a few instances of inadequate citation" in her writings, they "found no violation of Harvard's standards for research misconduct."
"Despite this, Gay separately said she would proactively have her own works reviewed.
Boston Globe: Harvard's Messaging on Gay's Alleged Plagiarism "Contradictory"
Fox News reported that the Globe accused Harvard of putting out a seemingly "contradictory" message on plagiarism. The paper also noticed that Harvard's own guidelines on plagiarism published on its website did not seem to fit with the governing board's statement, either, the Globe noted.
"If Gay didn't violate any standards of research, why would she need to correct anything?" the paper asked.
The Globe argued that Harvard's confusing guidelines, along with the governing board's statement, were "muddying what should be a clear-cut line and creating ambiguity about academic standards."
"For the professors who have to enforce plagiarism rules in the trenches, it matters what message Harvard sends about its guidelines."
An earlier investigation by the Washington Free Beacon that, in four papers published between 1993 to 2017, including her doctoral dissertation.
The Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo and journalist Christopher Brunet also published instances of what were considered as problematic sections of Gay's PhD dissertation that "violate Harvard's own stated policies on academic integrity."
The plagiarism accusations came just after Gay and two other university presidents appeared before Congress in their response to antisemitism on their respective campuses.
Related Article : Harvard President Claudine Gay Keeps Job Amid Campus Antisemitism Row
