Embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay has been charged with six new plagiarism charges, bringing the total number of allegations against her to more than two dozen — and sparking new calls for a new investigation.
Gay allegedly removed nearly half a page of material verbatim from the work of a fellow political scientist in a 2001 article, according to a complaint filed with the university on Monday and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The complaint alleges that Gay’s article “The Effect of Minority Districts and Minority Representation on Political Participation in California” borrowed four sentences from David Canon’s 1999 book “Race Redistricting and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts” without quotation marks and with only minor edits . .
Gay does not cite Canon near the passage, even though his name appears in the bibliography, according to the complaint, which claims there are nearly 50 allegations of plagiarism against him.
In one excerpt, Canon — a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin — wrote: “The VRA is often cited as one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation passed in our nation’s history.”
Meanwhile, Gay wrote: “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is often cited as one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation passed in our nation’s history…”
Harvard President Claudine Gay has been hit with six new plagiarism allegations. Reuters
Other allegations cited in the new complaint include more material from Gay’s dissertation, which has received three corrections for “insufficient citation examples.”
It alleges that Gay, who works in quantitative political science, withdrew punishment on mathematical models from his own thesis advisor, Gary King, in violation of Harvard’s code of conduct.
A university handbook from 1998 — the year Gay completed his dissertation — says: “Citing tells your readers that the strategy or method is not original to you and allows them to refer to its original context.”
The rest of the new allegations center on a 1996 paper by Frank Gilliam, titled “Exploring Minority Empowerment: Symbolic Politics, Coalition Governments, and Imprints of Political Style in Los Angeles,” which Gay allegedly retracted in his thesis.
The complaint filed Monday alleges Gay lifted nearly half a page of material from University of Wisconsin Professor David Canon’s 1999 book. University of Wisconsin-Madison
The complaint points to a passage in which Gay wrote: “For example, research has shown that policy preferences, or how a person views and evaluates government, is associated with electoral participation.”
That sentence bears a striking resemblance to Gilliam’s paper, in which he wrote: “Research suggests that how and why one views and evaluates government is linked to electoral participation rates.”
The Post has reached out to King, Gilliam and Harvard University for comment.
In a statement, Canon denied that the use of Gay’s work was plagiarism.
“I don’t care at all about that quote,” he told the Washington Free Beacon.
“Both Dr. Gay and I define basic terms like Section 2 and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, protected jurisdiction, and bailout. A good definition of these terms needs to use similar language or it won’t be accurate!”
When The Post approached Harvard University officials about the plagiarism allegations in October, they claimed the allegations were “absolutely false.” David McGlynn
“This is nowhere near an example of academic plagiarism.”
The new allegations were made by the same professor who originally told The Post that Gay had plagiarized much of his work.
He is now calling for a new research misconduct investigation to be opened, calling the board’s initial investigation “bogus” after the college called allegations that he retracted the work of other academics “absolutely false” and threatened legal action against The Post — before later admitting that an independent review found three cases of “insufficient citations.”
“Gay and Harvard … made a decision before launching their investigation,” the professor wrote in his complaint. “That’s why they let their lawyers tell the Post that the allegations were ‘proven false’ days before the investigation began.
Gay has previously been accused of plagiarizing other people’s work more than 40 times, with the new allegations bringing the case to nearly 50. David McGlynn
“The investigation was just for show,” he argued.
The professor, who was not identified, also noted that “Gay and Harvard asked The Post, ‘Why wouldn’t someone who made such a complaint want to attach their name to it?’
“I don’t want to because I’m afraid Gay and Harvard will violate their policies, behave more like a cartel with hedge funds attached to the university, try to get ‘huge’ damages from me and who knows what else.
“Boards and board subcommittees should be investigated for violating Harvard policies and procedures,” he said.
Gay was previously accused of plagiarizing other people’s work more than 40 times.
He vigorously defended his academic rigor in a statement to the Boston Globe, saying: “I stand by the integrity of my scholarship. Throughout my career, I have strived to ensure that my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards.”
The Harvard Corporation — the school’s highest governing body — also said Gay had unanimous support.
But over the weekend, a Harvard Honor Council student blasted the Harvard Corporation for that support — claiming the corporation uses double standards for Gay and Ivy League students.
“That the Corporation considers its correction to be an adequate response is unfair to students, who cannot simply submit corrections to avoid penalties,” the student wrote in an op-ed.
“When my peers were found responsible for several instances of inadequate citations, they were often suspended for one academic year.
“When the president of their university was found responsible for the same type of violation, the Corporation fellows ‘unanimously supported’ him.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
