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Uh Oh: Is Harvard President Claudine Gay's Luck About to Run Out?

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  December 21, 2023 11:45 AM

Allegations of plagiarism launched against Harvard President Claudine Gay came to light thanks to the work of mostly right-of-center media outlets and reporters following the school leader's disastrous testimony before House lawmakers regarding antisemitic incidents on campus. But now, despite statements backing Gay's leadership from the Harvard Corporation and following new allegations of plagiarism brought to light in another complaint, President Gay is watching as mainstream media outlets — normally kind to her — turn against her embattled tenure. 

CNN, for one, dug into the allegations against Gay and found that previous corrections to her scholarly work did not remedy the issue and "there are other, clearer examples of plagiarism from her career."

Per the network:

CNN was able to verify some of the main allegations of the Free Beacon’s reporting and spoke with plagiarism experts who confirmed that Gay committed plagiarism in these instances. But the experts were divided on the seriousness of Gay’s offenses and raised questions regarding Harvard’s review of Gay’s work, including whether enough time was spent to review Gay’s body of work.

The New York Times, as well, joined the pile-on Thursday morning with a brutal story calling the revelations of more plagiarism allegations "an embarrassing development for the university, which has sought to quell tumult over Dr. Gay's leadership in recent weeks."

From the Times:

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More than a week ago, Dr. Gay seemed to survive concerns about her response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and charges of antisemitism on campus, only to be faced with criticism of her scholarship. Wednesday’s news has raised more questions about the process by which the university board, known as the Harvard Corporation, has handled plagiarism allegations against Dr. Gay, and whether it has been overly lenient with her.

Could the proverbial dam be breaking? Well, Harvard has admitted that its leader's work failed to use quotation marks where they were needed and failed to list original authors' names — two acts that meet Harvard's criteria for plagiarism — but the school is still holding short of actually deeming her actions as such. Still, it looks like Harvard has begun backtracking from its previously strong position defending Gay and her writings. 

While Harvard and President Gay may have thought they could weather the scandal while it was in the conservative media domain, the mainstream outlets picking up the story — and adding their own criticism — is a significant development that casts more doubt on the future of the supposedly prestigious institution's leader.