‘I have never misrepresented my research findings,’ Gay said
Former Harvard President Claudine Gay disputed plagiarism accusations and blamed her resignation on racism, lies, and anxiety projection in a Wednesday New York Times op-ed.
“My hope is that by stepping down I will deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency in their campaign to undermine the ideals animating Harvard since its founding: excellence, openness, independence, truth,” she wrote.
The Ivy League university announced Tuesday that Gay will resign as president after just over six months in office, as The College Fix reported.
She has repeatedly faced plagiarism accusations, including a fresh complaint filed Monday.
Gay admitted she had “made mistakes” in neglecting to condemn antisemitism, for example; nonetheless, she attributed the “campaign against [her]” to “opportunists” waging “a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society.”
Speaking of the congressional hearing in which she denied that calling for the genocide of the Jews always violates campus harassment policies, Gay said she “fell into a well-laid trap.”
Regarding charges of plagiarism, Gay described the instances as “errors” in which “some material duplicated other scholars’ language, without proper attribution.”
She refused to admit guilt, writing, “I have never misrepresented my research findings, nor have I ever claimed credit for the research of others.”
“Moreover, the citation errors should not obscure a fundamental truth: I proudly stand by my work and its impact on the field,” Gay wrote.
Gay also blamed the charges against her on racial stereotypes and a “false narrative of indifference and incompetence.”
She stated that she “make[s] an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety about the generational and demographic changes unfolding on American campuses,” particularly as “a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution.”
The total number of plagiarism allegations against Gay now touch about half of her published works, with nearly 50 examples, Aaron Sibarium of the Washington Free Beacon reported Monday. Critics have cited plagiarized passages in eight out of Gay’s 17 published works.
MORE: Claudine Gay to keep job as professor, earn nearly $900,000 per year
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