A high-ranking editor and columnist for the Washington Post is calling on Harvard University’s president Claudine Gay to resign, saying the instances of plagiarism in Gay’s published works have grown too numerous to ignore.
In her op-ed this week, associate editor Ruth Marcus noted that Claudine Gay’s acts of plagiarism are far-reaching and include whole paragraphs lifted and copied from other sources, with minimal changes. Even her acknowledgements contain plagiarized passages.
“Her track record is unbefitting the president of the country’s premier university. Remaining on the job would send a bad signal to students about the gravity of her conduct,” Marcus wrote.
Opinion by Ruth Marcus: Harvard President Claudine Gay ought to resign. Her track record is unbefitting of a president of the country’s premier university. Remaining on the job would send a bad signal to students about the gravity of her conduct. https://t.co/mL6mJp79k4
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 23, 2023
She also noted that Harvard’s failure thus far to remove Gay gives the appearance that she is being held to a different standard than students, who must abide by strict guidelines governing citations and attributions in their written work.
Students walk through Harvard Yard, April 27, 2022, on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Charles Krupa, File/AP)
The Washington Post op-ed joins a growing list of publication demanding Gay’s resignation. Both the New York Times and the Boston Globe have run similar op-eds arguing that Gay “must go.”
The New York Times increased the pressure on Sunday by running an article about Harvard’s highly secretive board — often referred to as the “Corporation” — which has thus far continued to support Gay.
Also on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported on Harvard faculty who are calling for board members to resign over the scandal.
Even far-left The Atlantic published an article from staff writer Graeme Wood earlier this month calling on Gay to resign.
Harvard has sought to downplay the plagiarism scandal. As Breitbart News reported, the university referred to the plagiarism allegations against its embattled president as “duplicative language” in its investigation into the matter.
The university said it found instances of “inadequate citations” that, “while regrettable, did not constitute research misconduct.”
The Washington Post‘s op-ed makes no mention of Gay’s disastrous Congressional testimony during which she was asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews constituted a violation of the university’s code of conduct.
Gay replied that it depended on the “context.”
WATCH: Elise Stefanik Rips into Harvard President Claudine Gay Over Antisemitism
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