If you have not found any of it, it’s because you’re not looking for it. Entire passages, nearly verbatim, without quotation marks or references or citations.
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I'm looking at them. "Entire" and "nearly" are doing a significant amount of work - they're basic descriptions of basic things. Is it by the book misconduct? Maybe; I'm not an academic, so not in a position to judge. But from the outside, it looks strongly like angels-on-pinheads technicality.
It seems to me that the well-intentioned academics who are not defending Gay think they're defending the integrity of the academy itself by going above and beyond the rules to address even the hint of impropriety. This is exactly the wrong way to respond to an enemy whose goal is to destroy it.
If you steal intellectual work - theories, discussion - that’s plagiarism of serious nature. But if someone uses the same generic phrases (like “A lark is a tree”), it’s next to meaningless. The examples I’ve read are the second kind. 1/2
Also: a person whose career is fake because of plagiarism - which is the charge Rufo & Co. make - will not have merely copied a paragraph in 1995; their intellectual work will be based on it. Claudine Gay was “scalped” because her age, race, and beliefs cause some to hate her. Fix this, Harvard. 2/2
I think it's accurate to say Gay was targeted because of her beliefs & what she stood for. If she held what Rufo believes are the "correct" set of views, right wingers would not have dug into her history. But, it's not their fault there was something to find.
I think it's possible that she was targeted maliciously AND there was misconduct.
I'm not an academic, and it's been pointed out to me that I'm not a good political scientist, but I do believe the fruit of a poisonous tree doctrine should be universal, and applies here. You can and should disagree.
The widespread refusal to acknowledge there's even a possibility Gay did something most schools would frown on if done by a student, is uncomfortably reminiscent of the MAGA approach: "The accusations are false & even if there's some truth, it doest matter because everybody does it."
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Were I a betting man, I would wager a small remaining few would be of the “stern look” variety of misconduct rather than “fireable offense” type.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/1/3/plagiarism-allegations-gay-resigns/
I’ve also read the specific allegations cited in a series of recent NY Post articles that even if one squints are still obvious hit pieces.
I'm not an academic, and it's been pointed out to me that I'm not a good political scientist, but I do believe the fruit of a poisonous tree doctrine should be universal, and applies here. You can and should disagree.