Few Harvard staff concerned with president's plagiarism charges willing to talk: NY Times

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Harvard president facing 40 new allegations of plagiarism

Fox News Molly Line reports the latest on the allegations. 

The New York Times reported that few Harvard faculty members who saw President Claudine Gay’s plagiarism allegations as "potentially serious" were willing to talk on the record with the newspaper.

On Wednesday, an internal review from the Ivy League school found two additional instances of "duplicative language without appropriate attribution" regarding Gay’s work. There were also reports that Gay will request three corrections from Harvard’s Office of the Provost regarding her 1997 Ph.D. dissertation.

This followed Gay submitting corrections to the two articles published in 2001 and 2017 and requesting four corrections in two articles.

Though the Harvard Corporation has stood by Gay as these allegations have come out, the New York Times noted in its report that few Harvard staff members who were concerned were willing to speak publicly.

Harvard President Claudine Gay faced more plagiarism accusations on Wednesday. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

EMBATTLED HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY HIT WITH MORE PLAGIARISM CHARGES

"Few of those who saw the accusations as potentially serious were willing to speak on the record. But some who said they were troubled also noted that students were often punished, sometimes harshly, for similar infractions," the New York Times reported.

The sole dissenting quote came from professor of government Theda Skocpol, who considered the charges "troubling."

"It’s troubling to see the standards we apply to undergrads seem to differ from the standards we apply to faculty," she told the Times.

Similarly, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., sent a letter to Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker on Wednesday demanding more information about the university’s handling of plagiarism allegations against Gay and "the unequal application of Harvard’s Honor Code."

The New York Times reported that few "who saw the accusations as potentially serious" were willing to speak on the record. (Getty Images)

"Our concern is that standards are not being applied consistently, resulting in different rules for different members of the academic community," Foxx wrote. "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."

On December 12, the Harvard Corporation released a statement saying it would "reaffirm" its support for "President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University," adding that she did not violate school standards despite "inadequate citation."

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The Harvard Corporation released a statement in solidarity with Gay on December 12. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

"With regard to President Gay’s academic writings, the University became aware in late October of allegations regarding three articles. At President Gay’s request, the Fellows promptly initiated an independent review by distinguished political scientists and conducted a review of her published work. On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation. 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," the statement said.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard for a comment but has yet to receive a response.

Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.