January 3, 2024

Did the case of Claudine Gay give new energy to the conservative campaign against left-wing academia?

I'm reading "How a Proxy Fight Over Campus Politics Brought Down Harvard’s President/Amid plagiarism allegations and a backlash to campus antisemitism, Claudine Gay became an avatar for broader criticisms of academia" by Nicholas Confessore, in The New York Times.
Dr. Gay’s defenders... warn[ed] that her resignation would encourage conservative interference in universities and imperil academic freedom. (Though some experts have rated Harvard itself poorly on campus free speech during Dr. Gay’s tenure in leadership.)...

What a delicious parenthetical!

That link on "poorly" goes to the FIRE website, where you have to do a search to see where Harvard ranks. I did the search (and you can too). We're told the "speech climate" is "abysmal."

But of course, this article, outside of its parentheses, portrays conservative critics of academia as the threat to freedom.

Note that the FIRE analysis is looking at "student free speech and open inquiry," while the NYT article has Gay's defenders concerned about "academic freedom," which connotes the interests of faculty

Back to the NYT article:

... Dr. Gay — a scholar of Black political participation and an architect of Harvard’s efforts to advance what she has called “racial justice” on campus — came to stand for the right’s broader critique of elite academia, which it views as intellectually narrow, lax in standards and overly focused on questions of identity....

Of course, a strong view of academic freedom would protect a faculty member's choice to be intellectually narrow and strictly — obsessively — focused on questions of identity. But outsiders to the faculty certainly have their freedom to point at that narrowness and criticize it. And the question with Gay was not her choice to study racial justice. It was the decision of others to put her in a position of great authority, a decision that to conservative critics looked as though it had more to do with her race and gender than her substantive merit. 

“It was a thinly veiled exercise in race & gender when they selected Claudine Gay,” Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur and Republican candidate for president, wrote on X on Tuesday. “Here’s a radical idea for the future: select leadership based on *merit.*”...

That's why the charges of plagiarism hurt so much. 

But now Gay has resigned from the Harvard presidency. Problem solved? 

87 comments:

James K said...

But now Gay has resigned from the Harvard presidency. Problem solved?

Harvard fared poorly in those FIRE rankings long before Gay became its President. The rot runs deep and wide. Of course she was part of that earlier rot as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, notably in her treatment of Roland Fryer.

But there's a reason she rose to the level she did. The Harvard Corporation, the main governing body, is full of rot, starting with its head, Penny Pritzker. And it's pretty much completely inbred and self-perpetuating. So no, problem not solved by a long shot.

Heartless Aztec said...

More like an opening salvo.

Howard said...

A university president is not chosen for academic prowess it is an administrative and political position. So the cry of racial and sexual favoritism based on her relatively lame academic performance does not logically compute.

The problem with modern universities is bad for the Democrats and so whatever the Republicans can do to change that system will benefit the Democrats ultimately.

Kai Akker said...

That the left occasionally loses on a particular episode in no way says they are losing their very tight grip on the American academy.

They are weakening themselves every time an example like this arises. But it will take much more to loosen their hold, overall. Their product will have to lose popularity -- could happen -- and some other format for education will have to challenge their monopoly.

A crisis so urgent that there is no room for leftist shenanigans would help, if you want to go through such a crisis.

Enigma said...

Tag: Conservatives pounce

Here's another story with a similar theme. It's apparently the Dem talking point for the Gay affair:

https://www.rmoutlook.com/politics/harvard-presidents-resignation-highlights-new-conservative-weapon-against-colleges-plagiarism-8050166

Discovering plagiarism is now a "conservative weapon"...let's recall how Ward Churchill the fake Native American and Senator Elizabeth Warren the fake Native American weaponized DEI and rule bending to advance their own WHITE careers.

I envision a generation of right-wing activism here. There are likely many thousands of (DEI/social justice/derivative Marxist) professors with equal or worse plagiarism records than Gay. And with 95% of them hard left-wing, they are very easy political targets per university conduct policies as written.

Universities purged the right for wrong-think and got hoisted on their own petard. It's a Wil-e-coyote moment in academia.

tim in vermont said...

There is an interesting section about politics in the book The Power of Habit that emphasizes the importance of denying one’s political enemies even the tiniest victory. Basically it’s more important to win for liberals than to be right.

R C Belaire said...

Look what Harvard did to Larry Summers when he broached the subject of STEM and women. Bye!

The Crack Emcee said...

"But of course, this article, outside of its parentheses, portrays conservative critics of academia as the threat to freedom."

That's because they are: Censoring Israel Critics (& Right-Wing Hypocrisy) Is Nothing New

"Of course, a strong view of academic freedom would protect a faculty member's choice to be intellectually narrow and strictly — obsessively — focused on questions of identity."

Oh, white people. Even after liberation from colonialism, nobody's ever written rules to keep them out, or made them get off the sidewalk when they walked by, etc., so this whole idea of identity seems foreign and (Ann keeps stressing this) obsessive when blacks do it. It doesn't seem to bother whites that Jews do it, too - Israel is practically just one big identity trip for European Jews and whites LOVE helping with that - even to the point of murder. The fact it's whites who set the whole identity mechanism in motion, so they probably ought to be more circumspect, doesn't seem to occur to them, at all, as they voice derision on those forced to wrestle with their gifts.

"The question with Gay was not her choice to study racial justice."

That reads like Jews have a choice on whether to deal with anti-semitism or not. These are not choices. White society is oppressive. Just like on this blog, whites are the majority, and mostly hostile to the 'other'. Minorities have to learn to deal with that oppression or die. Different people come up with different strategies but I guarantee you this, as you plan your next ski vacation: no one would choose to be doing this, instead of that, if they didn't have to. I envy white people for being able to live their lives, not being burdened by their bullshit, throughout history.

"It was the decision of others to put her in a position of great authority, a decision that to conservative critics looked as though it had more to do with her race and gender than her substantive merit."

Harvard's overreach, when trying to right their historical wrongs, is a minor issue - unlike the Zionists, they ain't killed nobody - especially when compared to the threat of these conservative barbarians trying to stifle free speech.

The First Amendment is first for a reason.

Chris said...

"Problem solved?" Hardly! Now she will be exhibit number one of how racist republicans and the right are! She was hounded because she is black. Plagiarism? That’s a white construct! Everyone and everything is racist and this poor black professor is the latest victim of that racism! Nevermind that she supports genocide, is it really genocide if it’s white people (jews will now be categorized as white)?

rehajm said...

It's liberal framing to call it a 'conservative campaign', isn't it? It is really only a demand for basic competence, not even a higher standard of excellence, or best in field. Competence. The biggest problem for civilization is that is now a conservative idea...

...imagine Claudine Gays are installed into every institution humans rely on- all aspects of government safety, banking, security, hospitals, nuclear labs, airports... airplanes. Now you don't have to imagine it, it is already here...

Darkisland said...

Just think, if Claudine gays parents had been born a little further east, she would be Dominican ("hispanic") rather than black.

She would be an adjunct at Back Bay community College or some such.

None of this would be an issue and we never would have heard of her.

This is really not about skin color but whether her ancestors spoke Ftench/creole or Spanish.

John Henry

iowan2 said...

People respond to incentives.

People in a protective bubble, isolated from a wide array of consequences, don't respond to the usual incentives.

Reputation
money
advancement

The board/council, what ever the lever pullers call themselves, sit on a huge endowment. It is not an exaggeration to call Harvard a Hedge Fund that runs a college.
I have seen reports that Harvard has lost $1 billion due to Gays ignorant response to problems on campus, coming to light due to Gays, performance in front of a Congressional comitee. But it will not notice the financial incentive.

Will the Pinnacle of Higher Education, Harvard, feel any pain at all? Will Harvard retreat from DEI? Will Harvard instead hire real leaders? Real people, with demonstrable skills, impressive CV, and a sixth sense to intuitively do the next right thing.

Reasonable board members would immediately write up a job description, seeking such a person, and go find that person.

Unfortunately The board does respond to "their" incentives. One is sunk costs. Those are HUGE, and I doubt the board has the spine to reverse a course, and admit it is impossible to have both DEI and excellence. Claudine Grey demonstrated that reality.

Bob Boyd said...

If the charges of plagiarism were without substance, I don't think Gay would have resigned. I think she would have made them fire her and sued them, but she couldn't really do that if they had cause to fire her. Plagiarism gave them that.
IMO, they should fire the people who hired Gay. She did exactly what they hired her to do and I'm pretty sure they knew about the plagiarism. They just thought they could count on everyone being afraid to say anything. Fear is the new academic freedom. And they're still counting on that fear to protect themselves. Thus the narrative that this is all the work of those horrible, icky conservatives.
This current business at Harvard did not come from conservatives. Conservatives have been talking about the problem for years and not getting very far. This current effort came from Jews, most of whom are probably quite liberal, trying to protect themselves from some pretty shocking racism and antisemitism. Those horrible icky conservatives just happen to support that effort.
I say throw the people who hired Claudine Gay, then threw her to the wolves, to the wolves.
The wolves are Harvard's best friend right now. Feed the wolves.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

"portrays conservative critics of academia as the threat to freedom. "

all NYT articles and op-eds do that.
WaPo too.
and NBC... and NPR... and....

It's not plagiarism and antisemitism that are the problem - it's those pesky conservatives demanding standards... and "interfering!" with the mob-left's duties as guard keepers of the abysmal and the decline.

Leave the poor baby leftists alone! No sunlight needed.

wendybar said...

The black supremacists who are deliriously upset that she was caught being a liar and a cheater are planning a "Civil Rights" march in her honor. They claim that being black gives you privilege that does not belong to other races. See Al Sharpton and Ibram Kendi for more on how whites are attacking her, and if she were a white man, she would still be there. (True...if you think about Joe Biden...but then...the same people VOTED for him)

Michael said...


What's missing from the discussion is how Gay achieved her esteemed position to begin with. Set aside the plagiarism charges for the moment Reviewing her work reveals an intellectual lightweight deserving at best an non-tenure track position at some state university branch campus. How the heck did she ascend to the top of one of America's most powerful institutions?


Leland said...

I still believe Gay was a perfect standard bearer for what Harvard has become, but honestly, I don’t really know. Perhaps Harvard can do better than Gay to find a standard for who they are that also has academic merit. What I’m sure of is that the defense given to retain Gay and the false arguments made about her departure suggests Harvard will not change. They will endeavor to do better. Maybe Barack or Michelle will be their new President.

Wilbur said...

My druther would've been to leave her Leftist butt in there, and remain as a visible, indefensible reminder of how messed up these universities are.

Because they're just going to replace her with someone as bad or worse. They'll just be a little more careful in their vetting.

typingtalker said...

Dr. Gay’s defenders... warn[ed] that her resignation would encourage conservative interference in universities and imperil academic freedom.

Is this an example of yelling "FIRE" in a crowded room?

tim in vermont said...

https://apnews.com/article/harvard-president-plagiarism-claudine-gay-3b048da1f2ee17b5edec3680b5828e8f

The headline is golden. “New conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism.”

tim in vermont said...

Conservatives demand that Harvard live up to its own stated standards. It Alinsky.

Administration of a large organization is a demanding job, but I suppose that since she was affirmative action, she was likely only a figurehead.

James K said...

Bob Boyd: "IMO, they should fire the people who hired Gay."

The problem is that, as far as I can tell, the people who hired her (the Harvard Corporation) are a self-perpetuating group with no explicit accountability or checks and balances. The only way they can be gotten rid of is if they voluntarily resign. And even that would require those who remain to replace them with someone better. None of that is very likely.

hombre said...

"... portrays conservative critics of academia as the threat to freedom."

Freedom to do what? Discriminate against speech and actions that oppose the social Marxist agenda?

Money Manger said...

I keep thinking of the famous Hirschfeld album cover for “My Fair Lady”. But for Shaw, Harrison, and Andrews, substitute Obama, Pritzker, and Gay.

The Crack Emcee said...

wendybar said...

"The black supremacists,..."

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

You are a hoot.

Esteban said...

I love how this has become a "Conservatives pounce" story in the media and not a critical examination of how and why leaders of prestigious institutions are chosen. Someone with such a paltry scholarly record, much of it cut and pasted from others (and possibly made up data) should not be the head of the most famous college in America. She would've survived her poor performance in front of Congress if she wasn't a fraud, full stop. Her race, gender etc. had nothing to do with it.

Esteban said...

I love how this has become a "Conservatives pounce" story in the media and not a critical examination of how and why leaders of prestigious institutions are chosen. Someone with such a paltry scholarly record, much of it cut and pasted from others (and possibly made up data) should not be the head of the most famous college in America. She would've survived her poor performance in front of Congress if she wasn't a fraud, full stop. Her race, gender etc. had nothing to do with it.

Breezy said...

The article on Gays appointment to Harvard President is naturally effusive with praise of her. Here’s the initial summary of her background:

“Since 2018, Gay has served as the Edgerley Family Dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the University’s largest and most academically diverse faculty, spanning the biological and physical sciences and engineering, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts. As dean, she has guided efforts to expand student access and opportunity, spur excellence and innovation in teaching and research, enhance aspects of academic culture, and bring new emphasis and energy to areas such as quantum science and engineering; climate change; ethnicity, indigeneity, and migration; and the humanities. She has successfully led FAS through the COVID pandemic, consistently and effectively prioritizing the dual goals of safeguarding community health and sustaining academic continuity and progress. The disruptive effects of the crisis notwithstanding, she has also launched and led an ambitious, inclusive, and faculty-driven strategic planning process, intended to take a fresh look at fundamental aspects of academic structures, resources, and operations in FAS and to advance academic excellence in the years ahead.”

Here’s the full article: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/12/harvard-names-claudine-gay-30th-president/

It’s of course hard to tell how much is pure embellishment in the announcement, but it’s a sad state when you’ve built this image and reputation only to have it come crashing down because your scholarly work which started it all was fraudulent.

Conservatives have every right to highlight the basic rot in academia. It’s destroying much of the critical thinking skills of a generation.

MadisonMan said...

A university president is not chosen for academic prowess it is an administrative and political position. So the cry of racial and sexual favoritism based on her relatively lame academic performance does not logically compute.
You write as if there aren't many many University Presidents who aren't both Academic and Administrative/Political powerhouses.

Kai Akker said...

--- ...imagine Claudine Gays are installed into every institution humans rely on- all aspects of government safety, banking, security, hospitals, nuclear labs, airports... airplanes. Now you don't have to imagine it, it is already here... [rehajm]

Right. So a significant failure with loss of life or enormous loss of money would cause some rethinking of the priorities "we" have allowed our society to pursue. Academic controversies are relatively minor. A terrorist attack originating with our leaky border; a bioweapon attack originating with our leaky border; less directly, absence of money when the bond market raises interest rates to reflect our horrible financial condition, and a spillover loss of wealth.... Those are the easily knowable possibilities. What it will be, by definition impossible to know.

Quayle said...

The eminence game is ending. The players are doing it to themselves. Ultimately all pride-infused associations and assemblies will divide and turn on themselves. That’s what pride does - it divides and destroys. The wise will realize the damage pride brings and will learn some humility. The others will keep struggling until they are each king of their own pile of dirt.

wendybar said...

From the BRILLIANT Black woman that Claudine Gay plagiarized...


Dr. Carol M. Swain
@carolmswain
I must confess the entire #ClaudineGay affair, and Harvard's incompetent handling of it has created enormous stress for me. I never expected #HarvardU and many scholars I once respected to attempt to redefine plagiarism because the ends justify the means in their sight. It is a sad day in America when Harvard can get faculty to compromise high academic standards so easily. This is being done to advance social engineering, diversity, equity, and inclusion (#DEI) goals. Click here, https://a.co/d/iixK9xz

Sebastian said...

"What a delicious parenthetical!"

The Althouse we like. Cutting prog obfuscation down to size in four words.

"Problem solved?"

Of course not. But at least the culture war now has two sides, and, for what it's worth, the public can see the corruption of one side.

When I click on the article, I get: "Conservatives See Harvard President Claudine Gay's Resignation as a Victory." A variation on Republicans pouncing, here conservatives gloating--supposedly. But many conservatives are not at all sure about that "victory"--see Heather Mac Donald' commentary. The rot goes deep, prog hegemony is strong.

By the way, apropos of nothing, Gay should have played the gender rather than the race card in her resignation statement. She is being treated differently than MLK Jr. and Joe B, whose plagiarism was more egregious.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

DEI is poison.

Leftist fascist decline toxicity.

Enigma said...

@The Crack Emcee That reads like Jews have a choice on whether to deal with anti-semitism or not. These are not choices. White society is oppressive. Just like on this blog, whites are the majority, and mostly hostile to the 'other'. Minorities have to learn to deal with that oppression or die. Different people come up with different strategies but I guarantee you this, as you plan your next ski vacation: no one would choose to be doing this, instead of that, if they didn't have to. I envy white people for being able to live their lives, not being burdened by their bullshit, throughout history.

Here Crack reveals no awareness of how whites are routinely treated when they contact or try to join other cultures. No awareness that east Asian societies hire whites for low-level "white monkey" PR roles. No awareness that mixed-race couples routinely leave Asian countries to give their young children a chance in school. How tourism operators in many non-white areas see $$$$$ with white people, and thereby adjust prices upward or focus theft efforts accordingly (e.g., obvious and routine in Puerto Rico). How whites face limited job opportunities in majority-Asian/Pacific Islander Hawaii.

Whites indeed have an easier time in white-created, white-majority cultures. Yes. This is tautologically obvious and should not surprise anyone. It should also be obvious that foreigners (whites included) are often treated poorly as minorities all around the world.

Choose your destiny: Live in a self-selected, isolationistic, segregated racial monoculture or interact with the broader world and face some degree of hostility/exploitation. History shows no other option. If you choose to interact, come in with good faith and an open heart or you'll typically be torn to shreds by the external culture. Humans are predatory animals that 'enslave' and eat millions and millions of cows and chickens every year. We all have the instincts and practices of meat-eating predators. Approach humans with caution.

narciso said...

What was the refrain down with the new boss same as the old boss

Maury said...

And she is still a professor with the President's salary of $900,000 / year. Nice gig.
Maury

narciso said...

I went to school with the fellow who was the longest serving haitian prime minister after he got his mba from a mid tier school he went to work for a musical entrepeneur wbo became president

Kevin said...

Problem solved?

Define your terms.

Big Mike said...

It was the decision of others to put her in a position of great authority, a decision that to conservative critics looked as though it had more to do with her race and gender than her substantive merit. [My emphasis]

Her “scholarship” — 11 articles, no books — was thin to begin with, and no one thought to ask to see her data, i.e. whether it even existed, much less was properly analyzed. To this conservative critic it looked that way because it was that way.

But now Gay has resigned from the Harvard presidency. Problem solved?

Obviously we won’t know until we see who replaces her. Best guess right now is a strong “no.”

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Headline answer YES. But I still get the impression the DNC-Media Complex is studiously avoiding how little free speech there is on campuses. The totalitarian people running higher education have lost their way, no longer interested in seeking Truth and Science and Open Inquiry. It’s way deeper than the figurehead DEI presidents. It’s pervasive. The staff to student ratio is too lopsided to be sustainable as a business model. Much more change is a’coming and it will include way more turmoil Claudine Gay , who is still a tenured professor with a record of stealing IP, just endured. Harvard is Bud Lighting their brand. And just like A-B they are so far completely unapologetic for what caused the problem.

Jeff H said...

"Problem solved?"

Is anyone swinging from a lamppost yet?

Rich said...

I looked at her salary and was impressed.

The Crack Emcee said...

Enigma said...

"Here Crack reveals no awareness of how whites are routinely treated when they contact or try to join other cultures."

"I'm not saying that white people are better. I'm saying that BEING white is definitely better,...if you're white, and you don't admit it's great, you're an ASSHOLE."

- Louis CK, acting like everyone can see him, a fact many whites don't seem to 'get' when they speak

Darkisland said...

(e.g., obvious and routine in Puerto Rico)

Not because you are white, because you are a tourist.

Go to Wisconsin Dells, NYC or any other tourist area. The same thing happens

John Henry

Old and slow said...

AI should make it a trivial task to search through vast amounts of writing by tenured professors and quickly identify plagiarism. No need to cast a narrow net anymore. Let the machine do all the work! I'll bet there are rich seams to be mined.

The Crack Emcee said...

Enigma,

"Choose your destiny: Live in a self-selected, isolationistic, segregated racial monoculture or interact with the broader world and face some degree of hostility/exploitation."

You need to add that - on top of overcoming all the barriers you mention - you need to develop a thick skin and earn a degree in amateur psychology and/or psychiatry to deal with white assumptions and negative stereotypes: Chimamanda Ngozi - I didn't know I was black until I went to the US.




tcrosse said...

Claudine Gay was not and is not held to the same high academic standards that others are. So far nobody has mentioned "the soft bigotry of low expectations", perhaps because the person who articulated that is reviled by both Dems and Trumpoids.

wendybar said...

The Crack Emcee said...
wendybar said...

"The black supremacists,..."

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

You are a hoot.

1/3/24, 7:56 AM

HOW are they any different than the white supremacists that Progressives see hiding behind every bush and tree?? Some blacks are racists and want what some whites who are racist want...just the opposite race. Open your eyes.

Gusty Winds said...

Any conservative involvement in a University is considered "interference".

But...they will gladly take the tax dollars which subsidize their Ivory towers from working class conservatives.

These people that run Universities are complete shit.

Ampersand said...

Existing educational institutions have overwhelming ideological momentum. Creating parallel institutions will take more resources than we have. Pessimism is warranted.

Douglas B. Levene said...

In a better world, the members of the Harvard Corporation would all resign, too. However, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. So what is likely to happen is that they will pick a new president who shares Gay’s enthusiasm for DEI ideology and the DEI regime, but who otherwise has impeccable academic credentials. My guess is they will pick an academic physician or scientist, someone who is deeply concerned about systemic racism and who agrees that pursuing social justice should be Harvard’s fundamental purpose, but not someone whose academic field of study is social justice. We’ll see.

Amadeus 48 said...

Sorry. Gay's sins run much deeper than plagiarisms and feckless DEI promotion. I am stuck on Claudine Gay's role in destroying Roland Fryer's flagship work. Don't know who Roland Fryer is? He received the John Bates Clark medal, awarded annually each April (formerly biennially from 1947–2009) to that American economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.

Here is a short film featuring Glenn Loury and others, including Stuart Taylor, that tells the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8xWOlk3WIw

Enigma said...

@The Crack Emcee You need to add that - on top of overcoming all the barriers you mention - you need to develop a thick skin and earn a degree in amateur psychology and/or psychiatry to deal with white assumptions and negative stereotypes

That's a universal need. The biggest jerks and bullies in the world are elementary school kids. They can twist and damage personalities for life.

The development of oceangoing ships 500 years ago brought global cultures together in ways they never expected, ways they never had experienced, and often ways they never wanted. The imperialists were often terrible people, yes. The only options today are to find a niche or literally try to undo the past (i.e., the creation of Liberia on the west coast of Africa; South African apartheid).

What is to be done about it now, by the white British navy that fought and died to end slavery? By the temperance-movement anti-slavery whites who fought and died to end it in the USA? At some point there's more personal value in working with the possible and looking to the future. In my experience ignoring physical traits has been far more effective then mentioning them or focusing on the negatives.

I offer no further solution because there is none.

Cappy said...

I sure hope so.

Oligonicella said...

"Did the case of Claudine Gay give new energy to the conservative campaign against left-wing academia?"

Yes, as it should.

Real American said...

It's a huge tell that they worry about "conservative interference" since they have pretty much systematically eliminated all conservatives from the university setting. But what has that produced?

Left to its own devices, the left has turned the university system into factories that mass produce huge numbers of racists and anti-Semites and anti-American bigots who support terrorists and imitate Nazis, not to mention all of the groomers, pedophiles, and perverts.

Seems to me there needs to be more "interference" in university governance.

Original Mike said...

Our Problematic Nation: America Isn’t Down with DEI

"I’ve read many public opinion surveys about these thorny issues, but I’ve yet to encounter one that asks Americans what they think other Americans think about DEI dogmas.

My guess is that many of us are like the onlookers during the absurd procession in The Emperor’s New Clothes. We see the nakedness of the powerful but are afraid to speak up because we assume our neighbors have been duped."


This is what the finger-pointing cries of "racism" have been about for many years. It's to cow people into silence. And it's been remarkably successful.

Prof. M. Drout said...

"Plagiarism investigations may be used as a 'weapon' against 'diverse' scholars."

Oh, no!

Dear administrators and professors worried about this,

I, Prof. M.D.C. Drout, B.A., M.A., M.A., Ph.D., distinguished "anti- anti-plagiarism weaponization expert," am willing to show you how to protect your faculty against these nefarious tactics. My consulting fee is a mere $1500 / hour; I require a minimum of 30 hours plus travel and accommodation. Or I can consult via Zoom, in which case there is an additional $2500 convenience fee.

But to show you, all my Althouse Commentariat friends, how much I love you, I am going to give you my "Anti- Anti-Plagiarism 'Weapon' Defense" FOR FREE. Write this down. Ready?

DON'T COPY OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF WITHOUT GIVING THEM CREDIT.

(*Please do not widely broadcast this insider knowledge, as that would cut into the revenues of my Anti- Anti-Plagiarism Weaponization consulting business, but do feel free to use the advice yourself. Just make sure to credit me whenever you avoid being charged with plagiarism because you followed my advice and didn't copy other people's stuff without giving them credit for it. Note that to this point hundreds of thousands of scholars have successfully followed this path toward not being falsely charged with plagiarism by not copying other people's work without attributing it to them).

You're welcome.

Joe Smith said...

I certainly hope this gives momentum.

Wokeness and equity need to be burned to the ground.

When senior officers in the military tell us that inclusiveness is their top priority for national security, we are fucked unless we fix it.

n.n said...

Claudine "Harvard" Gay

Diversity (i.e. color judgment, class bigotry), Equivocation, Indoctrination (DEI)

Also, Diversity, Inequity, Exclusion (DIE)

That said, now (no pun intended) the merit of all students and faculty are suspect since the time of woke. One step forward, two steps backward.

Original Mike said...

"DON'T COPY OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF WITHOUT GIVING THEM CREDIT."

Bob Newhart said it more succinctly.

n.n said...

Judge people by the color of their skin, not the content of their character? Is this an NYT style guideline?

That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion

Charlie Martin said...

The suggestion that Gay’s performance as an academic is a red herring red fails,, because as well as being elected as president of Harvard she also was given a tenured faculty position. And in fact remains as a tenured member of the faculty.

Compare with, eg, Michael Bellesisles, whose plagiarism and poor methods lost him his tenured position.

The Crack Emcee said...

A fresh take: Claudine Gay is a victim of Hamas

The Crack Emcee said...

wendybar said...

"HOW are they any different than the white supremacists that Progressives see hiding behind every bush and tree?? Some blacks are racists and want what some whites who are racist want...just the opposite race. Open your eyes."

Wendybar, I'm black - my eyes are open: White America and Israel can wipe all of us out. Blacks are 13% of the American population, spread out across the nation. We are basically the same kind of existential threat to America that Hamas is to Israel, another nuclear power and leading weapons manufacturer to the world - none. Blacks are literally surrounded by you. You are suffering from merely having to listening to us for the first time in history. You choose to focus on idiots and act like they represent all of us or even most. Even if they did, we couldn't act on it. So WTF? Don't you notice I don't have any recourse but to leave if I want to be treated like everyone else here? Didn't you notice I didn't have to address anyone here to catch Hell from this crowd? Do you think Drago & Co follow me around, make up lies about me, and try to antagonize me, because I said anything directly to any of them? (One person said that doesn't matter, because I was already guilty of "infecting" the salon,...with my ignorance) Can't you see I'm abused? Can't you see I'm outnumbered? Can't you see they're being unfair - daily? Why would you let that go on without remark, to attack OTHER BLACKS, while it's going on right before your eyes? What's wrong with you?

Open your eyes.

Gusty Winds said...

Problem solved?

The liberal problem with universities will NEVER be solved. Too many people eat the ripe fruit to give it up or change anything. They are the worst type of people. Subsidized by taxpayers that they hate, while driving young people into massive debt because they bitch and moan anytime someone suggests they control costs...like every other business.

But, higher education and gov't are immune to cost controls. It has to do with the profile of the liberals who enter either sector as a profession. Arrogance. Hypocrisy. Credentialism. Disdain for producers and the working class....all the typical shit you see in an Ayn Rand villain.

At the moment, my favorite liberal grifter is the Wisconsin's very own Vegan Hammer...Joe Gow. I don't want him to go quietly. I want him to take the UW Regents to court and be as big of and asshole as he can be.

Moondawggie said...

As a former Med School Professor with more published papers than Dr. Gay, here's my viewpoint:

Plagiarism is a severe academic felony.

Fabricating data is a capital crime.

Her complaint that she is a victim of right-wing racism rather than her own fraud and incompetence is despicable.

loudogblog said...

James K said...

"Harvard fared poorly in those FIRE rankings long before Gay became its President. The rot runs deep and wide. Of course she was part of that earlier rot as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, notably in her treatment of Roland Fryer.

But there's a reason she rose to the level she did. The Harvard Corporation, the main governing body, is full of rot, starting with its head, Penny Pritzker. And it's pretty much completely inbred and self-perpetuating. So no, problem not solved by a long shot."

"The fish rots from the head, as they say." Dr. Horrible

And unlike the former President of Harvard, I know how attribute a quote.

loudogblog said...

The Crack Emcee said...
"wendybar said...

"The black supremacists,..."

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

You are a hoot."

Crack,

And you have blinders on.

There will always be people of every race who feel that their race is superior. It's human nature.

Enigma said...

@Ill-informed Crack wrote: You are suffering from merely having to listening to us for the first time in history.

Nope. You are ignoring history and grinding an axe in your own head. See:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/antislavery_01.shtml
https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/the-british-campaigns-against-slavery/

USA abolitionists of the Civil War era followed the lead of UK whites a generation or two prior, so Americans "listened for the first time in history" a solid 150 to 200 years ago.

That same crowd warned about cigarettes as "coffin nails" a full 75 years before the US put warning labels on cigarette packs:

https://tobacco.harpweek.com/hubpages/CommentaryPage.asp?Commentary=Introduction
https://www.reporterherald.com/2013/02/01/origin-of-cigarette-phrased-nailed-down/

Just because this is the first time YOU are aware of it, it doesn't mean it was the first time others were aware or that others tried to address a problem. Political movements can span generations, or even thousands of years (see Gaza and N. Ireland). Ideas advance, retreat, people reinvent the wheel, people drift off to form new religions, and ideologies go extinct.

New jerks and crazies are born in every generation too.

Darkisland said...

As far back as the 90s it was pretty simple to detect plagiarism. If anything in a student paper caught my eye I would copy a few sentences or a paragraph and drop it in a search engine.

If it was copied, the search engine would usually find where it was copied from.

Not 100% foolproof but seemed to work about as well as the dedicated plagiarism checker that the school introduced in the early oughties.

I think someone now needs to go after Gay for the plagiarism and sloppy data and get her professorship revoked.

Let her join Michael Bellesiles teaching at a community college.

John Henry

Old and slow said...

Crack, I'm sure being black comes with many disadvantages. You're right, I believe I have it easier by virtue of being white. However, you choose to identify yourself here as black. Your decision, and that's fine. But if you made the same posts about Hamas and Israel while loudly proclaiming yourself to be white, the reaction you get would be, if anything, more negative than what you are subjected to. The color of your skin serves alternately as a lightning rod and shield. Have you noticed anything about the collective response to rcocean? And he is nowhere near as virulent or prolific in his anti Israel posting. You've got a big fucking chip. Understandable I suppose, but it hasn't done you much good, has it?

John said...

Moondawgie said:

"Plagiarism is a severe academic felony.
Fabricating data is a capital crime."

I too out-published Ms. Gray, though her citations per paper are higher than mine, and what Moondawgie says is exactly my normative position. Unfortunately, I'm not as confident that is the positive (i.e., empirically supported) position. As academia has grown the pressure to publish has resulted in a lot of misbehavior, most of which has NOT resulted in firings. (Exceptions like "Arming America" author Micheal Bellesiles, who resigned his Emory U. position, or the Stanford president who recently resigned for data fabrication he did not personally do, are rare. The two "cheating" scholars from Harvard and Duke are still fighting to keep their jobs.)

I recall early in my career asking for someone's data, as their published results seemed incorrect based on data that I had access to. The reply was that the author was moving to a new university and all of his data was in transit. It is apparently still in transit. I never got it.

The incentive to cheat in these ways is highest among empirical researchers for the obvious reason that theoretical (i.e., mathematical modeling) is by definition open about the methods, so disputes are quickly and unambiguously resolved. I spent most of my career doing theoretical work partly because it was what I was good at and partly after watching fellow graduate students massage their data until they found a model specification that they liked. But journals in my field have for some years required submission and public posting (usually on the journal web page) of data, computer programs, etc., for empirical papers, in part because the problem had gotten so out of hand. See the "Replication Crisis" (e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis) for more.

wendybar said...

THIS is how SICK the MSM really is. Is there ANY doubt that you can't trust them with the truth??

jtomka🌺
@jtomka

This is an actual headline from Associated Press. This is not satire. This is an actual headline.👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism

https://apnews.com/article/harvard-president-plagiarism-claudine-gay-3b048da1f2ee17b5edec3680b5828e8f?utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter

wendybar said...

Proved my point Crack...anybody that would stick up for the RACE BAITING, Anti Semite Al Sharpton doesn't have their eyes open. Go back to your little bubble world where everybody is out to get you.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

she is back on faculty at harvard making 900,000/ year.

joke is on us.

narciso said...

They gave bellesiles another book contract after that fraud

Smilin' Jack said...

“And the question with Gay was not her choice to study racial justice.”

So she appears to have copied someone else’s “racial justice” bullshit instead of making up her own. What puzzles me is how would anyone have noticed, and why would anyone care? There are people who actually read that shit?

n.n said...

she is back on faculty at harvard making 900,000/ year.

joke is on us


Diversity, Education, and Incompetence (DEI) is the critical racists' monetary theory.

The Crack Emcee said...

loudogblog said...

"There will always be people of every race who feel that their race is superior. It's human nature."

Speak for yourself. Your people, like the Jews, think they're "the human beings" and "chosen people." My people are former slaves - whole different outlook. We don't feel superior to anybody. The only blacks I've ever met, who think even CLOSE to that, are black Muslims and I'm not sure the black Muslims I've met even feel that way.

We're the abused, trying to find reasonable people, but are stuck with you megalomaniacs.

The Crack Emcee said...

Old and slow said...

"You've got a big fucking chip. Understandable I suppose, but it hasn't done you much good, has it?"

When a bird gets up in the morning, do you think it asks, itself, if it's 'good' for it to be a bird? I don't think about black anger any more than I do our love. It is what it is and both are rejected by the likes of you.

What's "understandable" is how truth and love are in short supply, whenever you're around, and that pisses me off. Why would I want to trade what I was raised on for your world, of Frank Sinatra ogling black girls, singing mindlessly about Aquarius? And why wouldn't I be totally out of sorts that you, not only can't appreciate the difference - between a real American culture and that red, white and blue bullshit killing kids - but have actually aligned yourselves to create this antagonistic, and violently different result, for us all to live in?

You wanna lighten my mood? I got a PayPal account available at the bottom of every post on TMR. Do your best and see what happens. I promise I'll do something that matters with it. Otherwise, you keep on "understanding," while going out of your way to make me miserable - daily.

The Crack Emcee said...

wendybar said...

"Proved my point Crack...anybody that would stick up for the RACE BAITING, Anti Semite Al Sharpton doesn't have their eyes open."

Nyce dodge. I spoke to you directly, but you didn't even give me the respect to address a single word that I wrote. How's THAT for an example of how race relations 'work' with you?

Instead, in your usual I-just-set-my-hair-on-fire manner, you decided to ignore everything I said, to give me your take on Al fucking Sharpton - who I never mentioned but you're determined to associate with me - like you're a caricature of a typical white racist, with the typical white racist talking points, about the usual suspects a typical white racist is upset about, to smear an entire people.

I'm going to stop, because you're hopeless. I've never seen you say a nice word about blacks since I got here, and you're not going to start now, or with me, so,...whatever. Carry on. It seems to make you and the others racists 'happy,' and Old and slow seems to indicate that - for racists like y'all - that's all that really matters. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, when he wrote about the pursuit of happiness being all, after all.

Damn him.

Mr. T. said...

Plagiarism is sooooooii Gay.

hpudding said...

My people are former slaves - whole different outlook. We don't feel superior to anybody.

People, people, people. Some black Americans - like any other group - have a sense of self-esteem. Some just plain don’t. Some people are able to feel a healthy sense of pride. And some people live in a hell of their own self-inflicted misery. Who knows where it comes from? Probably family and genetic factors, just like everything else. But it cuts across all groups to a greater or lesser degree. Some people like to focus more on their oppression than their liberation. It’s an individual thing. There are Irish Catholics who feel more victimized by English history than uplifted by all they’ve achieved in America and elsewhere. Some people after WWII became lifelong raving nutcases, some the kindest anyone would ever know. But no one who only sees groups and tribes instead of human beings and individual choices in almost every circumstance would know anything about that.

If you don’t respect individual responsibility and free agency then you don’t respect freedom, period. Only those who would take responsibility for what they do with their freedom are fit for it. But they still have the right to be free, even when they squander it by bitching and moaning about how mean the world is to them. But then everyone else has the freedom to tune that out and ignore them as well. Refusing to take oneself seriously has a contagious way of making others take that person less seriously also.

hpudding said...

It doesn't seem to bother whites that Jews do it, too - Israel is practically just one big identity trip for European Jews and whites LOVE helping with that - even to the point of murder.

Jesus Christ! This is comically ridiculous, and about 6 decades out of date. (Just like Crack’s understanding of America). The majority of Jews in Israel had no history in Europe. They are browner than Mexico.

But they assimilated. Just like really dark-skinned Indians do in America. Indian-Americans speak in a standard American dialect instead of the redneck-accented talk that Ebonics, um, “appropriated,” and hence are taken as seriously as other business owners (including 7-11 franchises) are rather than the moonshine brewers living in log cabins that redneck speech SCREAMS.

But pride is a deadly sin and if a black American feels a need to keep talking in redneck-inflected Ebonics speech then who am I to tell him he doesn’t have a right to speak in a register that is more looked down upon for class reasons than if they spoke like Steve Urkel or Alfonso Ribeira? Even Barack Obama could win two races for the presidency by realizing the importance of how someone chooses to speak. A white guy who talks like a redneck wouldn’t win office, either. Jimmy Carter could have spoken like the Duck Dynasty family but he was educated and chose to downplay that the same way Obama didn’t overdo an Ebonics inflection.

Usually successful ethnic groups leave that identity stuff for relaxed settings and can do the standard majority culture affectations when it’s business time. But some don’t WANT TO!!!

loudogblog said...

The Crack Emcee said...
loudogblog said...

""There will always be people of every race who feel that their race is superior. It's human nature."

Speak for yourself. Your people, like the Jews, think they're "the human beings" and "chosen people." My people are former slaves - whole different outlook. We don't feel superior to anybody. The only blacks I've ever met, who think even CLOSE to that, are black Muslims and I'm not sure the black Muslims I've met even feel that way.

We're the abused, trying to find reasonable people, but are stuck with you megalomaniacs."

What do you mean by "your people????" Do you have an issue with Latinos?

Es posible que sus antepasados ​​hayan sido antiguos esclavos (no ha proporcionado ninguna prueba de ello), pero usted nunca fue un esclavo y no tiene absolutamente ninguna experiencia personal de esclavitud y está a generaciones de distancia de la esclavitud, por lo que su opiniĂłn sobre la esclavitud solo viene fuera de referencias histĂłricas. (A lo que cualquiera de nosotros podrĂ­a acceder). Puedes pensar que hacerse la vĂ­ctima es siempre una estrategia ganadora, pero no te das cuenta de lo patĂ©tico que realmente te hace parecer.