The implosion of Harvard academia

[seanD]

So most folks I assume are familiar with Claudine Gay, Harvard president, who was forced to resign apparently over plagiarism in multiple articles she had authored, including her dissertation.

Chris Rufo, a graduate with a masters at Harvard Extension School, was one of the journalists who exposed her. One of Gay's Harvard professor colleagues, Jennifer Hochschild, lashed out in Gay's defense on social media, and what does she do to get even? She throws her own school's extension program under the bus claiming Rufo is not a real Harvard graduate because he graduated in the extension program at Harvard.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/have-metamucil-and-delete-your-account-harvard-prof-self-immolates-elitist-attack-chris

There were two major players involved in her downfall - billionaire investor Bill Ackman, and journalist Chris Rufo.

Now, establishment tentacles like Business Insider, and the NY Times are going after Ackman's wife for allegedly plagiarizing part of her dissertation (which, after reading their hit-piece, is maybe a 0.01 on the Gay scale).

They're also coming after Rufo, of course - and they aren't sending their best.

On Thursday, Harvard Professor of Government and African American Studies, Jennifer Hochschild, implied that Rufo had 'stolen valor' by claiming he was a Harvard alum, because he went through Harvard's extension program as opposed to their graduate program.

Link

© Copyright Original Source

Imagine trashing your own school just to score cheap revenge points. And then the social media fireworks began, including community fact checkers who had to defend Harvard against her smears of her own school...





This was Rufo's response...



And then Hochschild of course doubled down, as expected. The other responses are hilarious and are in the article I linked to. If these are the clowns shaping Gen Y and Z, then no wonder they're so messed up.

[Starlight]

Republicans are on a high at the moment, because they are anti-education and their cancel culture attempt is currently managing to get some leaders of prestigious educational institutions cancelled. Some are especially happy because they took down a black woman, and so they can do their little white supremacy "she can't have been deserving of the position in the first place, leadership is for white males" anti-DEI dance.

In the short term its kind of disgusting and gross and shows how immoral Republicans are. In the longer term, it won't matter one bit. Educational institutions replacing a leader means nothing. They'll probably bring back these same people once the current cancel-culture attempt dies down.

[One Bad Pig]

Izzat a secular Jew going to bat for an anti-Semite?

[seanD]

Republicans are on a high at the moment, because they are anti-education and their cancel culture attempt is currently managing to get some leaders of prestigious educational institutions cancelled. Some are especially happy because they took down a black woman, and so they can do their little white supremacy "she can't have been deserving of the position in the first place, leadership is for white males" anti-DEI dance.

In the short term its kind of disgusting and gross and shows how immoral Republicans are. In the longer term, it won't matter one bit. Educational institutions replacing a leader means nothing. They'll probably bring back these same people once the current cancel-culture attempt dies down.

Did you even read the OP before you went on your unhinged partisan rant? Gay didn't get "cancelled." She resigned because she's a plagiarizer. And then her own colleague threw her own academic program under the bus just get even with the guy that exposed her.

[Starlight]

Gay didn't get "cancelled." She resigned because she's a plagiarizer.

Maybe I'm more aware of the background of this than you. Did you follow the House hearings related to this? Harvard's investigation cleared her of plagiarism. She was forced out by big donors.

[Diogenes]

Republicans are on a high at the moment, because they are anti-education and their cancel culture attempt is currently managing to get some leaders of prestigious educational institutions cancelled.

Being anti-activist training and anti-trans grooming is not the same as being "anti-education". Perhaps if educational institutions were less indoctrination centres that have steadily pushed critical theory that culminated in people protesting for is effectively the eradication of the Jews and the state of Israel, "cancelling" leaders of said institutions wouldn't be celebrated.

Some are especially happy because they took down a black woman, and so they can do their little white supremacy "she can't have been deserving of the position in the first place, leadership is for white males" anti-DEI dance.

So plagiarism is okay as long as the colour of their skin and sex chromosomes check the boxes? Presumably plagiarism would indicate a lack of character.

In the short term its kind of disgusting and gross and shows how immoral Republicans are.

Some would consider judging a person by the colour of their skin to be immoral.

In the longer term, it won't matter one bit. Educational institutions replacing a leader means nothing.

I agree because academia marches left.

They'll probably bring back these same people once the current cancel-culture attempt dies down.

Because their qualifications are based on their skin colour.

[seanD]

Maybe I'm more aware of the background of this than you. Did you follow the House hearings related to this? Harvard's investigation cleared her of plagiarism. She was forced out by big donors.

Knowing how you have a penchant for spreading misinformation, I assumed this was just more of the same (especially how unhinged you were in your first response) so I looked it up myself. According to Vox (a LEFTWING rag, so you can't whine about partisan bias), Harvard initially tired to dismiss it before they had done an investigation. Once they were forced to investigate, because journalists were doing their work and exposing it, they did in fact find more evidence of plagiarism in her dissertation, and this apparently was before congress started probing. I'm guessing she had a habit of plagiarism in multiple other works, so she was forced to step down lest she be exposed more than she was. Though I admit that last part was my own opinion.

[Sam]

I am less interested in the distinction between Harvard and Harvard Extension School than I am in perusing Rufo's work for a master's degree in Liberal Studies (Government), which requires a thesis or capstone project for completion. Not showing up in Harvard's DCE database or larger DASH archive, however.

-Sam

[oxmixmudd]

Izzat a secular Jew going to bat for an anti-Semite?

She's is not an actual anti-semite, though her statements before congress left the door open to that accusation. And the accusations of plagiarism also seem very much over-blown, the sort of technical gaff that could be used to take down half of academia if it was desired.

The fact she is black and has recieved all manner of attacks on that basis from those against her makes me all the more suspicious of why she was targetted. The actual 'evidence' i've seen seems hardly worth mention otherwise. But her gaff in front of congress just left her open to the attacks and scrutiny that forced her out.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2...-dissertation/

Source: above

“On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation,” they added. “While the analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.”

© Copyright Original Source

The author of the section that appears to most closely meet a definition of plagiarism said this about her use of his work ( he was literally an instructor of hers at one time)

Source: above

In an interview Monday night, Voss — who said he taught Gay methods at Harvard while he was a teaching fellow and she was a student — said the work was “technically plagiarism,” but described it as “minor-to-inconsequential.”

Voss, now an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, said he was unbothered by her use of his words because it was a technical description of a quantitative method, the scope of the description was “fairly limited,” and he felt she may have picked up research practices from her instructors.

© Copyright Original Source

Its apparently a campaign by one specific conservative rag that wanted to take her down.

And she was not the only one who fell over the same mistake in terms of not appearing to be sufficiently pro-Israel.

[seer]

I am less interested in the distinction between Harvard and Harvard Extension School than I am in perusing Rufo's work for a master's degree in Liberal Studies (Government), which requires a thesis or capstone project for completion. Not showing up in Harvard's DCE database or larger DASH archive, however.

-Sam

Rufo received a Master’s in Liberal Arts in Government from Harvard Extension School in 2022, the school confirmed in an email to The New Republic.* Harvard Extension School, in a nutshell, is part of the renowned institution, but it is not Harvard as most people know it (a Harvard student once joked that it’s the “back door” to Harvard).

https://newrepublic.com/article/1706...ree-misleading

[seanD]

She's is not an actual anti-semite, though her statements before congress left the door open to that accusation. And the accusations of plagiarism also seem very much over-blown, the sort of technical gaff that could be used to take down half of academia if it was desired.

The fact she is black and has recieved all manner of attacks on that basis from those against her makes me all the more suspicious of why she was targetted. The actual 'evidence' i've seen seems hardly worth mention otherwise. But her gaff in front of congress just left her open to the attacks and scrutiny that forced her out.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2...-dissertation/

Source: above

“On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation,” they added. “While the analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.”

© Copyright Original Source

The author of the section that appears to most closely meet a definition of plagiarism said this about her use of his work ( he was literally an instructor of hers at one time)

Source: above

In an interview Monday night, Voss — who said he taught Gay methods at Harvard while he was a teaching fellow and she was a student — said the work was “technically plagiarism,” but described it as “minor-to-inconsequential.”

Voss, now an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, said he was unbothered by her use of his words because it was a technical description of a quantitative method, the scope of the description was “fairly limited,” and he felt she may have picked up research practices from her instructors.

© Copyright Original Source

Its apparently a campaign by one specific conservative rag that wanted to take her down.

And she was not the only one who fell over the same mistake in terms of not appearing to be sufficiently pro-Israel.

Playing the race-card, when that's apparently the last and only resort as a defense, is something I come to expect from a racist liberal like yourself, and it's pretty gross.

[Sam]

Rufo received a Master’s in Liberal Arts in Government from Harvard Extension School in 2022, the school confirmed in an email to The New Republic.* Harvard Extension School, in a nutshell, is part of the renowned institution, but it is not Harvard as most people know it (a Harvard student once joked that it’s the “back door” to Harvard).

https://newrepublic.com/article/1706...ree-misleading

I am aware of the distinction between the two institutions. What I am interested in is the master's thesis or capstone project that Rufo was required to complete to graduate. That work should be publicly available through Harvard's databases but I have not, as yet, found where it was published.

-Sam

[seanD]

Rufo received a Master’s in Liberal Arts in Government from Harvard Extension School in 2022, the school confirmed in an email to The New Republic.* Harvard Extension School, in a nutshell, is part of the renowned institution, but it is not Harvard as most people know it (a Harvard student once joked that it’s the “back door” to Harvard).

https://newrepublic.com/article/1706...ree-misleading

As others on his page have pointed out, he's been open and public about that...

[Juvenal]

"Plagiarizing the acknowledgments" is not what anyone in academia would consider academic misconduct. Neither would anyone who could gain admittance to a Harvard graduate program enroll in an extension program. Nor would any mere master's degree recipient, even from a standard program, have the academic heft to judge any Harvard professor and former department chair a "joke."

Still, the unwitting irony of a less qualified critic hurling insults in lieu of thoughtful critique would have been a sublime joke, had he only thought to add sarcasm tags.

[seer]

I am aware of the distinction between the two institutions. What I am interested in is the master's thesis or capstone project that Rufo was required to complete to graduate. That work should be publicly available through Harvard's databases but I have not, as yet, found where it was published.

-Sam

Well Harvard confirmed to the leftist New Republic that he did in fact have the Masters. Whether you can find it or not.