Claudine Gay is the present poster child for plagiarism. Although presidents of Harvard University are never too far from public attention at any time, heightened focus on her came about based on her views on anti-Semitism and free speech. A long-time advocate of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” she saw nothing contrary to Harvard principles in calling for the death of Jews.

However, her anti-Semitic views were not why she was compelled to resign from her position as Harvard’s president. No, it turned out that she had widely plagiarized several of her eleven refereed journal articles and her Ph.D. dissertation. Despite the initial circling of the wagons of the Harvard professoriate and administration in support of her—several hundred faculty members wrote a letter in her defense—the evidence of her massive plagiarism became so overwhelming it was no longer tenable that she remained in her position.

What now for this “scholar?” Will she now enter the unemployment lines? Not a bit of it. Instead, she takes on the position of a tenured faculty member at Harvard’s Political Science Department at a salary of about $900,000 per year. Plagiarism pays.

This brings up several questions. First, why did Harvard hire her in the first place? Someone with fewer than a dozen publications, none considered earth-shaking even by her most fervent supporters, would be extremely unlikely to be tenured at this august institution. We all know the answer to that one. Second, now that she has been exposed as an academic fraud, why is she still welcome on Harvard’s faculty? We all know the answer to that one, and it is the same answer. Third, given that she plagiarized heavily, not only in her small list of refereed journal publications but also in her Ph.D. dissertation, why does she still retain the honorific “Doctor.” Why has Harvard, which also awarded her Ph.D., not rescinded that degree? Again, we all know the answer.

Speaking of not rescinding her Ph.D. for plagiarism, there is, of course, a comparable elephant in the room: “Dr.” Martin Luther King, Jr., also plagiarized his Ph.D. dissertation. Why has Boston University not annulled his doctorate? The answer is pretty much the same as in the previous case. Is there something wrong with the drinking water in Massachusetts?

Is opposition to plagiarism racist? Of course not. The very idea is nonsensical. However, that is the wokes’ position. How else can we explain that the doctorate of Mr. Martin Luther King Jr. has still not been rescinded, and the fact that Claudine Gay’s Ph.D. is still valid, and she is now a professor in good standing in the political science department of still prestigious Harvard University?

There is a possible justification for this abject failure on Boston University’s part to uphold academic standards that would not apply in the case of Claudine Gay. Mr. King is no longer around to defend himself against these charges. But he was undoubtedly alive when they were first made, and he had no defense against them at all at that time. Simple justice requires that both these “scholars” be stripped of these unearned degrees and that Gay also lose her role as a professor.

The last thing our society needs is for black leaders and scholars to be associated with plagiarism. Yet, since Gay remains a professor at Harvard and since Boston University did not revoke Mr. King’s Ph.D. when it had the chance, this is a distinct possibility.

Not only is Claudine Gay the poster child for plagiarism she is also the poster child for affirmative action. Were she a straight white male with the same rather skimpy record of scholarly accomplishment, it is unlikely that she would have come within a million miles of attaining a job at Harvard, let alone becoming the president of this august institution. Gay owed her position as a faculty member at Harvard not to merit but to her race and gender.

It’s evident, therefore, that the path forward must include a commitment to upholding academic integrity, irrespective of one’s background or position.

Photo by Dick DeMarsico — Wikimedia Commons & Maura Healey — Flickr