Harvard after Claudine Gay: Can University Be Saved?

At least one lesson has been learned at Harvard this semester: It turns out there is such a thing as bad publicity. After months of controversy over the university’s treatment of anti-Israel protesters and the revelation that much of her academic work included plagiarized material, President Claudine Gay has resigned.

It should be unsurprising, given the allegations against her, that Gay is stepping down. After all, had I, as a Harvard junior, written a paper for class in a similar fashion, I would have been suspended. Had I done it multiple times, I might have been expelled. Eliot A. Cohen, a former member of the administrative board that handled student plagiarism, suggested as much. So, too, did a current undergraduate member of the Harvard College Honor Council (which adjudicates plagiarism cases), speaking anonymously to avoid retribution.

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Alexander Hughes

Alexander Hughes, a student at Harvard University, is a former National Review summer intern.

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At least one lesson has been learned at Harvard this semester: It turns out there is such a thing as bad publicity. After months of controversy over the university’s treatment of anti-Israel protesters and the revelation that much of her academic work included plagiarized material, President Claudine Gay has resigned.

It should be unsurprising, given the allegations against her, that Gay is stepping down. After all, had I, as a Harvard junior, written a paper for class in a similar fashion, I would have been suspended. Had I done it multiple times, I might have been expelled. Eliot A. Cohen, a former member of the administrative board that handled student plagiarism, suggested as much. So, too, did a current undergraduate member of the Harvard College Honor Council (which adjudicates plagiarism cases), speaking anonymously to avoid retribution.