The resignation of Harvard University President Claudine Gay over plagiarism allegations and a disastrous response to anti-Semitism has put the university's governing body in the spotlight.
The 12-member board is led by billionaire Hyatt Hotels scion and former Obama administration Commerce Secretary Penny Prutiker, who has vowed to remain in office despite Gay's resignation. .
Harvard University itself is facing an investigation by the House Education and Labor Committee over the plagiarism scandal and how it was handled.
The university said it first learned of the allegations that Gay had appropriated the words of other academics in late October, when the newspaper contacted spokesperson Jonathan Swain for comment during an interview. It is said that
But what he did next was to blackmail the Post with a 15-page bullying letter from the bare-faced law firm Claire Locke, exonerating the university's most important rulers before they could even investigate Gay. This left us with a series of unanswered questions.
Why did Harvard not investigate gays and claim they were innocent?
In a letter to the Post on Oct. 27, a lawyer for Harvard University demanded that the university “must not publicize” allegations that Gay was a plagiarist, and called for the Post to express its concerns. threatened legal action to find the anonymous whistleblower who approached the paper.
The paper also claimed that Gaye's work had been “cited and properly credited” and that the copying allegations were “patently false,” all of which have been published since the Post reached out for comment. It was done within hours.
Less than two weeks later, on November 7, the university's lawyers said it had “conclusively refuted (with evidence) all of the false claims of plagiarism presented to date.”
But the company has yet to explain how it reached that conclusion or who determined Gay's innocence.
Why did Harvard University launch a secret investigation, and what did it actually find?
On November 3, Harvard University launched an investigation of sorts, but in complete secrecy.
Four of the 12-member company have set up a special committee to decide what to do about the allegations, but their identities have not been disclosed.
This committee appears to be the one who decided to repeal Harvard's normal rules for dealing with plagiarism allegations against faculty members, but Harvard later announced that the institution implementing the rules would report to the president. He said this would be a conflict of interest — he was also gay at the time.
The company then questioned three outside “prominent political scientists” who had “no connection” to Harvard University. Their identities and the methods used to investigate the gays have not been disclosed.
But on December 12, the university issued a lengthy pro-gay statement, again clearing her of plagiarism without mentioning the findings of three outside political scientists.
Instead, it said, “On Dec. 9, fellows reviewed the results and found several instances where citations were insufficient.”
“Our analysis found no violations of Harvard University's standards for research misconduct,” he said, but did not explain how he reached that conclusion.
Will gay people be subject to thorough scrutiny under Harvard faculty rules?
The corporation uses a secret star chamber made up of outside political scientists to investigate plagiarism allegations because “these agencies ultimately report directly to the president, which can create conflicts of interest.” He said there was no need to use the usual methods of investigation.
But that conflict no longer exists. Gay became a regular member of the faculty again.
And under normal departmental rules, it is up to the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences' research integrity officers to decide whether there is enough suspicion in gay research that it should be fully investigated and, if possible, It is necessary to investigate within one week.
A meeting of the Standing Committee on the Professional Conduct of Teachers will then be held. Required to begin a full investigationnotify Gay of it in writing and find “an individual with appropriate scientific expertise to evaluate the evidence and the issue.”
Gay has already admitted that he needs to make four revisions to his academic paper and three revisions to his thesis.
Who hired a bullying lawyer to explain it?
Claire Locke, an attorney for Harvard University, said she represents both the university and the gays. But given that the university, which boasts a $50 billion endowment, has its own lawyers led by general counsel Diane Lopez, it's unclear who made the unusual decision to hire them, or who was spared Gay's plagiarism. It is not clear whether he instructed them to claim that.
Claire Locke previously worked with the Sacklers, Matt Lauer, Russian oligarch After the invasion of Ukraine.
He also represented Dominion Voting Systems in its lawsuit against FOX News. The Post's parent company, News Corp., shares ownership with Fox News' parent company, Fox Corporation.
Harvard University did not respond to the Post's request for comment.
