Claudine Gay’s Resignation Was Overdue
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Claudine Gay engaged in academic misconduct. Everything else about her case is irrelevant, including the silly claims of her right-wing opponents.
First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
- Hamas doesn’t want a cease-fire, Graeme Wood argues.
- When did humans first start wearing clothes?
- Whatever happened to Zika?
When Truth Comes From Terrible People
Claudine Gay is stepping down as the president of Harvard University. Her decision is right and even overdue.
Despite the results of an investigation commissioned by the Harvard Corporation last month that only of “inadequate” citation, about her work include episodes of what most scholars would recognize as academic misconduct, including plagiarism. Experts consider the recent excerpts to be plagiarism, and I agree: I was a professor for almost 35 years, at multiple institutions, including Harvard, where I taught courses for their continuing-education and summer programs for 18 years. I have referred students for varying punishments based on similar misconduct; I have also sat on boards that adjudicated such claims.
