Plagiarism, Double Standards & More

Jewish billionaire’s wife can, but black Harvard president cannot.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA: a long used style of documentation of sources used in writing research papers in colleges and universities); “Plagiarism is the act of presenting words, ideas, or images of another as your own; it denies authors or creators of content the credit they are due. Whether deliberate or unintentional, plagiarism violates ethical standards in scholarship (APA Ethics Code Standard 8.11, Plagiarism). Writers who plagiarize disrespect the efforts of original authors by failing to acknowledge their contributions, stifle further research by preventing readers from tracing ideas back to their original sources, and unfairly disregard those who exerted the effort to complete their own work (APA, 2022).

Recently, Dr. Claudine Gay, the first ever known black president of Harvard University; and first woman to be Harvard’s president — resigned after allegations of plagiarism in her 1997 dissertation, a 1993 essay, and some articles. Usually I don’t care about what happens at Harvard because I am aware of its racist elitist history and reputation. Apparently, however, Harvard has stood by Dr. Gay’s side in this. She was not fired as was the University of Pennsylvania’s president after the infamous congressional hearing on antisemitism in December 2023, in which three ivy league college presidents refused to say or not say exactly what a certain group wanted them to say or not say.

What piques my interest is [1] “they” evidently couldn’t find anything else to bring her down so they used alleged plagiarism from decades ago. Had there been any plagiarism Dr. Gay’s doctoral degree would not have been conferred . A dissertation has to be approved by an advisor who reads it before it is approved for being submitted to the dissertation committee which then takes about three weeks reading and assessing it. [2] If the committee who approved Dr. Gay’s degree conferral missed plagiarism in her dissertation, shouldn’t all dissertations they assessed be investigated for plagiarism?

Speaking of investigations. The wife of Bill Ackman — a Harvard legacy admit and graduate who is a billionaire hedge fund manager and was one of those in power who gleefully persecuted Dr. Gay for plagiarism — was found to have plagiarized her dissertation. Ackman had harsh words for Dr. Gay and demanded she be fired regarding the plagiarism accusations. After his wife was accused he toned it way down and made excuses for how it makes sense that academic writers could plagiarize the writings of others by improper citations of others work. His wife admitted to copy pasting from Wikipedia.

Sources:

Plagiarism (2022) https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/plagiarism

Tangalakis-Lippert, Katherine (2024 January 7) Bill Ackman says its a ‘near certainty’ that academics will improperly cite others’ work after his wife admitted to plagiarism. https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-ackman-plagiarism-near-certainty-neri-oxman-record-questioned-2024-1