NEW YORK, NY Dec. 21 (DPI) – Both The Boston Globe and The NY Times produced reports today that Harvard’s president Claudine Gay used “duplicative language” in her scholarly research, setting off a storm on comment boards.

The NYT’s comment section saw more than 2,200 comments today, with most of most of them expressing surprise that Gay hadn’t been forced to resign.

The revelations about Gay’s sloppy scholarship – and further reports that she produced only 11 published academic works prior to becoming an administrator – come just two weeks after her congressional testimony on punishing virulent antisemitism on college campuses. Many were shocked that Gay, as well as the presidents of MIT and Penn, offered noncommittal and legalistic responses to the basic question of whether calls on campus for genocide of Jews should be punished.

The most popular comments on today’s reports about Gay’s scholarship expressed surprise that Gay still has her job. The top recommended comments, in order:

Hold up — the head of Harvatd has only 11 publications?

I’m a 67 year old lifelong Democrat and have been a strong supporter of liberal social causes throughout my life. I also attended two “top tier” Boston area universities, one for undergrad, the other for law school. I wrote numerous papers, etc., during those years of studies, then practiced law for over 40 years, writing countless briefs, motions, etc. Proper citation, use of the Elements of Style, etc., were drilled into our minds as essential elements of any writing, whether a thesis or a simple motion or essay. Pres. Gay’s handling of the anti-semitism “issue” at Harvard was dubious, awkward and injudicious. It was a close call whether she should remain. This morning’s Boston Globe article referenced some 40 instances of “Duplicative Language” (otherwise known as plagiarism) by Dr. Gay over the course of her academic career. Where is the line to be drawn vis-a-vis an inadvertent failure to cite a reference or passage, and what now appears to be a serial abuse of academic standards? How does a college president earn respect and enforce Harvard’s rigid standards when her repeated conduct violates such norms? It is not my role to make that final determination. But the powers to be at Harvard have tied themselves in knots in mishandling this extremely sensitive and important manner.

I would hope that a university president would be held to a higher standard than an undergrad.

This is becoming embarrassing. While it doesn’t seem that we are dealing with deliberate intellectual theft, the issues appear to be widespread, and it is clear that Dr. Gay has been systematically sloppy about some very basic aspects of academic writing (problems have been detected in about half of her already meager research output). And yes, this is plagiarism (even if inadvertent), and Harvard’s refusal to use the word leaves a bad taste. Now, being systematically sloppy should not necessarily end a career, but Dr. Gay is not a mediocre scholar at a regional university, but the president of the world’s preeminent academic institution. She should be held to a higher standard and she should resign. Moreover, those who resist calls for her to be held accountable because she is being attacked by the political right are doing a disservice to both Harvard and the cause of academic honesty. They are simply strengthening the public perception that academia is being hypocritical or worse.

A Harvard student found to have plagiarized work in her dissertation would at minimum have her thesis rejected and would be subject to disciplinary action. I don’t think anyone else would simply be given a chance to correct the oversight.