New York Times Opinion Writer Calls on Harvard’s Claudine Gay to Resign

A New York Times opinion writer has called on embattled Harvard University President Claudine Gay to resign amid more than 40 allegations of plagiarism in her academic publications.

On Friday, Columbia University associate professor of linguistics John McWhorter joined a growing chorus of well-known figures urging Gay to step down with the publication of his opinion piece titled, “Why Claudine Gay Should Go.”

“Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, should resign,” McWhorter wrote. “I don’t love thinking so and hoped we would not reach this tipping point in the controversy over whether she should be retained in her position. But a tipping point it is.

“Harvard has a clear policy on plagiarism that threatens undergraduates with punishment up to the university’s equivalent of expulsion for just a single instance of it,” he continued. “That policy may not apply to the university’s president, but the recent, growing revelations about past instances of plagiarism by Dr. Gay make it untenable for her to remain in office.”

The Columbia professor argued that the preservation of “scholarly ethics” and “academic honor” hinged on Gay’s resignation because the university’s leadership sets an “example for students.”

The plagiarism allegations against Gay initially surfaced after she and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology testified before Congress about rampant antisemitism on their campuses.

Earlier this month, Gay, a political scientist, was accused of plagiarism involving her 1997 doctoral thesis and four papers that had been published between 1993 and 2017, which were reportedly missing proper citations. Former Vanderbilt University political science professor Carol Swain claimed that Gay plagiarized parts of her 1993 book and 1997 article.

The New York Post reported that the Harvard Corporation, the university’s governing body, had become aware of plagiarism allegations in October and launched a review of Gay’s academic work, during which it found three instances of “inadequate citation,” but ultimately no misconduct.

On Tuesday, the Harvard administrator was hit with a detailed complaint that contends that she failed to abide by the university’s strict rules about proper citation. The 37-page document was reportedly compiled by an anonymous, respected professor from another institution who independently verified the plagiarism claims.

“It is impossible that your office has already reviewed the entirety of these materials, as many … have not been previously reported or submitted,” the complaint reportedly stated, calling into question Harvard’s review process.

Gay told The Boston Globe that she stands by “the integrity of my scholarship,” saying she has “worked to ensure my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards.”