Harvard President Claudine Gay requests new corrections as House panel launches plagiarism probe

Originally Published: 21 DEC 23 06:07 ET Updated: 21 DEC 23 08:07 ET By Matt Egan and Melissa Alonso, CNN

(CNN) — Harvard President Claudine Gay is back in the hot seat as the embattled leader requested additional corrections of her past work, and a House committee widened an existing probe of Harvard to include an investigation into allegations of plagiarism.

In a statement to CNN on Thursday morning, a Harvard spokesperson said the university reviewed more of Gay’s academic work, and the president plans to update her 1997 PhD dissertation to correct additional instances of “inadequate citation.” But Harvard did not use the word “plagiarism” in its review of Gay’s work, and the university said Gay’s past mistakes did not constitute a punishable offense under its research misconduct rules.

The new corrections, first reported by The Harvard Crimson, are on top of the ones Gay issued last week to two scholarly articles she wrote in the 2000s. But a review by CNN, which published Wednesday, found Gay’s previous requested corrections did not address even clearer examples of plagiarism from her earlier academic work, including her dissertation.

A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on the widening House probe.

A growing plagiarism investigation

The Harvard Corporation, the university’s top governing board, said last week that at Gay’s request it launched an independent review of her published work in late October.

However, Harvard confirmed on Thursday that the independent review did not include Gay’s dissertation, because at the time the allegations concerned only her published works.

Responding to newer plagiarism allegations, Harvard said its subcommittee reviewed the dissertation and “found one replica of a missing citation or quotation mark that had already been identified in a published paper and that has since been corrected, along with two other examples of duplicative language without appropriate attribution.”

“President Gay will update her dissertation correcting these instances of inadequate citation,” the university spokesperson said.

Despite the new findings, Harvard maintains that Gay stopped short of misconduct.

“The members of the subcommittee and the Corporation concluded that Gay’s inadequate citations, while regrettable, did not constitute research misconduct,” the Harvard spokesperson said on Thursday.

Harvard said the review of Gay’s work relied on its Interim Policy and Procedures for Responding to Allegations of Research Misconduct, which lays out what qualifies as misconduct. In order to constitute “research misconduct,” the Harvard policy states that there must be a “significant departure from accepted practices,” the misconduct must have been committed “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly” and the allegation must be “proven by preponderance of the evidence.”

House expands its probe

Meanwhile, the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce widened its existing probe, which had been looking into rising instances of antisemitism on campus. The probe now includes allegations of plagiarism against Gay, according to a Wednesday letter from Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina.

The committee “has begun a review of Harvard University’s handling of credible allegations of plagiarism by President Claudine Gay over a period of 24 years,” Foxx wrote. “An allegation of plagiarism by a top school official at any university would be reason for concern, but Harvard is not just any university. It styles itself as one of the top educational institutions in the country.”

Plagiarism charges against Gay were first circulated by conservative activists and later reported by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication. The allegations followed her congressional testimony about antisemitism on Harvard’s campus.

President Gay recently submitted corrections to two papers she wrote in 2001 and 2017.

“Harvard does hold its students to these high academic and ethical standards,” said Foxx. “In the 2021-22 school year, the Harvard College Honor Council investigated 42 incidents of plagiarism, 35 allegations of exam cheating, and 19 other Honor Code violations,” she said, citing the council’s annual report.

The report states that 70 of these 100 cases resulted in a finding of responsibility and subsequently required academic probation or mandatory withdrawal.

In the letter, Foxx questions whether the university holds “its faculty — and its own president — to the same standards.”

The Republican committee chair requested a written response by December 29, and requested several documents relating to plagiarism and the independent review conducted by the university. She also requested “a list of any disciplinary actions taken against Harvard faculty or students on the basis of academic integrity violations… or other forms of plagiarism” since 2019, according to the letter.

In a previous statement, Gay said: “I stand by the integrity of my scholarship. Throughout my career, I have worked to ensure my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards.”

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