Academic who accused Harvard President Claudine Gay of plagiarizing her work claims Ivy League school won’t condemn her because she ‘is the product of an elite system that holds minorities of high pedigree to a lower standard’

A former Vanderbilt University professor who accused Harvard President Claudine Gay of plagiarizing her work has claimed the Ivy League will not convict her because she is a “high minority.”

In a scathing essay for the Wall Street JournalDr. Carol Swain responded to the Harvard Corporation's decision to support Gay despite her disastrous testimony in Congress about anti-Semitism on campus and accusations of plagiarism.

Swain claims that Gay omitted portions of her 1993 book Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress, as well as her 1997 article entitled Women and Blacks in Congress: 1870-1996.

She wrote, “Harvard cannot condemn Ms. Gay because she is the product of an elite system that holds high-ethnic minorities to a lower standard. This harms academia as a whole and it demeans Americans of all races who had to work for everything they earned.”

Swain, a right-wing political commentator, addressed other authors allegedly plagiarized by Gay but failed to convict her, reducing the missed sources to a few innocuous, inadequate quotes.

Swain claims that Gay omitted portions of her 1993 book Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress, as well as her 1997 article entitled Women and Blacks in Congress: 1870-1996

'Mrs. Gay had no problem piggybacking on people whose work she used without proper attribution. Many of those whose work she stole are not as outraged as I am. They are elites who have benefited from a system that protects their own elite,” said the political scientist.

Gay has also been accused of copying two paragraphs from the work of then-Harvard scholars D. Stephen Voss and Bradley Palmquist. One paragraph is almost identical, except for a few words.

But Voss, who now teaches at the University of Kentucky, told The Crimson that while Gay “technically committed plagiarism,” it ranges from “minor to insignificant.”

Harvard professor Lawrence Lobo, another scientist allegedly plagiarized by Gay, similarly told the Boston Globe, “I find myself unconcerned by these claims since our work is explicitly acknowledged.”

Swain went even further, echoing critics' claims that Gay's academic work is far from impressive and does not meet the standards that should be held for the president of Harvard.

The scholar added, “Even excluding the documented instances of plagiarism, Ms. Gay's work would not normally have earned tenure in the Ivy League. Tenure at a top institution normally requires groundbreaking originality; her work shows none.

“In a world where the privilege of diversity is king, Ms. Gay was able to produce mediocre research on tenure and administrative advancement at what was once considered a world-class university.”

Gay has denied the plagiarism allegations but will make corrections regarding the quotes, according to The Harvard Corporation.

Harvard President Claudine Gay during the congressional hearing on anti-Semitism on campus

Last week, Harvard said it had launched an investigation in October into claims that President Gay had plagiarized some of her academic work — months before the allegations emerged publicly.

The Executive Board says: 'The university became aware of allegations about three articles at the end of October. At President Gay's request, the Fellows immediately initiated an independent review by leading political scientists and conducted a review of her published work.

“On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which identified some cases of inadequate citation. Although the analysis found no violation of Harvard's standards on research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert quotations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.”

While the board says they found no violation of school policy in Gay's work, The Harvard Crimson, which reviewed the examples of alleged plagiarism, came to a different conclusion.

The school's newspaper wrote that some of Gay's writings “appear to violate Harvard's current policies around plagiarism and academic integrity.”

Gay was accused of copying two paragraphs from the work of then-Harvard scholars D. Stephen Voss and Bradley Palmquist. One paragraph is almost identical, except for a few words.

However, Gay did not use quotation marks or quotations in the text – Voss and Palmquist are not cited anywhere in her dissertation.

Harvard professor Lawrence Lobo, one of the scientists allegedly plagiarized by Gay, told the Boston Globe, “I find myself not worried because our work is explicitly recognized.”

A billboard at Harvard University on Sunday demanded the ouster of President Claudine Gay

The student publication notes that Harvard's rule on what constitutes plagiarism states that when copying language “word for word,” scientists must “acknowledge the author of the source material, either by enclosing the source material in quotation marks and providing clear attribution, ' or by paraphrasing the source material and providing a clear source reference.'

It is unclear whether the same rules applied when Gay submitted her dissertation in 1997.

Gay, the school's first Black president, was appointed to the post in July 2023. She sparked outrage at a congressional hearing after saying it depended on context whether calls for genocide of Jews at Harvard constituted harassment and violated the rules.

She was then forced to apologize after the hearing that cost Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania her job over a similar response.

Despite the backlash, Gay held on to institutional support at Harvard.