A new review by Harvard University has found more instances of “inadequate citation” in President Claudine Gay’s academic work, but said it didn’t reach the level of misconduct.
A new review by Harvard University has found more instances of "inadequate citation" in President Claudine Gay's academic work, according to two reports.
Gay had previously requested corrections be added to two articles following a review of her academic work, and The Boston Globe and Harvard Crimson reported that she was requesting corrections to her Ph.D. dissertation, completed at Harvard, following a new review.
The review found additional examples of "inadequate citation" in the 1997 piece, but they didn't reach the level of misconduct, according to a summary of the review shared by the university's governing body with the two newspapers Wednesday. NBC10 Boston and NBC News have reached out to Harvard to confirm the findings.
"President Gay will update her dissertation correcting these instances of inadequate citation," read in part a summary that was released to the Globe.
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The findings come as the school faces intense scrutiny for how it handles allegations of antisemitism on campus, as well as a campaign to expose allegations of plagiarism from Gay. Harvard's reviews have not found that she committed plagiarism.
But some have serious concerns.
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“She wasn't just leaving out citations, she was trying to disguise the material to make it look like her own, and thats not someone who’s making an innocent mistake thats malice of forethought she knew what she was doing," said Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars.
A congressional committee said Wednesday it was requesting documents on how the school handled the plagiarism allegations.
"Our concern is that standards are not being applied consistently, resulting in different rules for different members of the academic community. If a university is willing to look the other way and not hold faculty accountable for engaging in academically dishonest behavior, it cheapens its mission and the value of its education. Students must be evaluated fairly, under known standards — and have a right to see that faculty are, too," Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said in part in a public notice posted Wednesday on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce website.
Harvard is already under investigation for how it has handle antisemitism in recent weeks. In a statement backing Gay last month, the Harvard Corporation, the school's governing body, said an independent review into plagiarism allegations against Gay found three instances of “inadequate citation,” but no misconduct.
"Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing," the corporation noted.
