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Should Claudine Gay be gone?

January 15th, 2024 by Kenneth Abrahams

When I graduated college in 1982, I was glad it was over. Truthfully, I loved my undergraduate experience, but I was ready to move on. There was no chance that a Masters or Doctorate was in my future. If, and that is a big if, I ever went back to school it would be to take culinary classes and perhaps get a second bachelor’s or an associate degree. Both my wife and eldest son have master’s degrees. It took my wife about 30 years to complete hers, but she did it and I am extremely proud of her, as I am my son. Many of my clients who are professionals, not students, have their master’s degrees and some of them have also gone on to get their doctorates. It is amazing to see them balance their jobs, families, and school. For some, they struggled to get it done and it took years, but they persevered and finished. It is a lot of work. They have my respect for seeing it through.

Over the last month or so, I have watched, listened, and read about the Claudine Gay saga. For those unaware, she is the embattled, now former President of Harvard. The first woman of color ever to hold that post. From many reports, she is an inspirational leader that might have done amazing things at Harvard. To others, she was a politically correct DEI hire. Never having met her, I have no real opinion of her but there is a part of me that feels badly for her. She resigned under a maelstrom of negative press and people from all over the world pushing for her ouster. What continues to nag at me is whether she was treated fairly or was this a witch hunt by the conservative press.

Her troubles started after the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel. Shortly after the attack some Harvard student groups released a statement blaming Israel for the attacks. Their contention was that Israel deserved what it got for years of mistreatment of the Palestinian people. "We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." Condemnation from many was swift and unequivocal, their statement was supporting the death of many innocent individuals and could not be condoned by any civilized people. Official reaction from the Harvard administration was slow and less forceful.  The Harvard Administration’s first response came on October 9th and said they were “heartbroken” over the events but did not condemn Hamas or take the Palestinian students to task over the statement. Reaction again was swift from many alums, current students, and of course, the media. Several wealthy and prominent Harvard Alums and supporters not only expressed disappointment over the response but withdrew their financial support. It was, to put it mildly, a mess.

Gay, along with several other university presidents, was asked to appear before Congress to testify about how schools were dealing with antisemitism, hate speech, or crimes on campus. Having watched long stretches of these hearings, it felt much more like an inquisition than a conversation. Gay and the others from MIT and the University of Pennsylvania were rarely allowed to finish sentences or complete thoughts before they were interrupted by one of the elected representatives. Clearly, those from the world of academia were ill prepared to enter this field of battle. Did they cover themselves in glory, no. Perhaps I am in the minority, but I don’t believe their answers, or the bits of answers that they were allowed to actually get out, should have led to any of them stepping down. Shortly after the “hearings” the President of Penn tendered her resignation.

Pressure seemed to intensify for President Gay to follow suit. Along with concern over her Congressional appearance, there were questions about plagiarism in some of her academic work. Apparently, this is not a new issue and some of what was referenced had already been corrected and appropriately cited by Gay. As time went on there appeared to be more and more documents that came into question. Despite support from the Corporation (the governing body) at Harvard, she stepped down. It has left me to question whether she was treated fairly.

Having talked to more than a few people about this, there are strong opinions on both sides. Those that support her decision to resign and those that think she should have stayed on. Members of the Jewish community cite that her record had a lack of support of Jewish students at several points during her brief tenure. Others believe in following the money. When donors pull millions of dollars of funding and they do it publicly there was strong sentiment that she needed to go. In the eyes of some, plagiarism at that level is an unforgiveable sin. One person’s comment was as a doctoral student, “you know the rules around plagiarism and how to properly cite work.” This individuals’ feeling was if you are pressed for time hire a grad assistant to check your work. On the other side of the equation, people felt that President Gay was run out of town more for her politics than her academic indiscretions. For them, they are steadfast in the belief that were she not liberal, not a woman, and not a person of color this would all have blown over.

All I can say is that I am uneasy over how this was handled. Each and every year thousands of people are in doctoral programs all over the world. Perhaps I am wrong but just using the law of averages with that many papers and dissertations being written, handed in, and defended, it is hard to believe that Claudine Gay is the only one that has taken credit for the work of others or failed to properly cite source material. One can assume that, with some individuals, it is an honest mistake, while others do it deliberately. It is not lost on me that one of Gay’s loudest critics Neri Oxman, an architect, and former MIT Professor, has been accused of and admitted to plagiarism, the same unforgivable sin that she accused Gay of.  We will never know the full story of why Gay was forced out or chose to step down. It is sad that her stepping down has been the cause of celebration for some. Is the world of academia in general, and Harvard in particular, better now that Gay is no longer President? Clearly, Harvard still believes that she has value since as of this writing she is still part of the faculty. Not being a doctoral scholar or part of the world of academia, I have no real standing or expertise on the subject, but I certainly have a lot of questions about how this came to be.

About the Author

Ken Abrahams has written over 200 blogs. In some of those writings he is sure one could find ideas that came from conversations with or the writings of others. Although, he has never intentionally taken the work of others he is unwilling to state categorically that the wisdom of others has not appeared in this space. With AI this problem is only going to get worse.

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