New York Times columnist calls for Harvard president Claudine Gay to resign: ‘A tipping point it is’
NY Post
A New York Times columnist has called for embattled Harvard University president Claudine Gay’s ouster amid accusations of plagiarism, writing that the situation has reached “a tipping point.”
John McWhorter, a linguist professor at Columbia University, wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times on Thursday in which he said Gay should resign if the Ivy League school declines to dismiss her from her post.
Gay allegedly quoted or paraphrased authors more than 40 times without proper attribution in her academic works — which breaks the school’s strict rules on plagiarism.
“Harvard has a clear policy on plagiarism that threatens undergraduates with punishment up to the university’s equivalent of expulsion for just a single instance of it,” McWhorter wrote.
“That policy may not apply to the university’s president, but the recent, growing revelations about past instances of plagiarism by Dr. Gay make it untenable for her to remain in office.”
He added that Gay keeping her job “would not only be a terrible sign of hollowed-out leadership, but also risks conveying the impression of a double standard at a progressive institution for a Black woman, which serves no one well, least of all Dr. Gay.”
