On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz stated that Harvard University is exempting its President, Claudine Gay from the standards it applies to students on plagiarism that there are no honest mistakes and Gay is being defended because she’s a “DEI-protected” individual.
Dershowitz said, “I had a case some years ago where I represented a senior who was applying to medical school, he was dyslexic, and so the school provided him with a secretary under the Americans with Disabilities [Act]. He submitted a paper, which had handwritten footnotes. But the secretary forgot to put the footnotes in, and he was disciplined. And when we argued that, well, it was an accident, it wasn’t reckless, it was just a mistake, the university administration said there’s no such thing as an honest mistake when it comes to plagiarism, it’s absolute liability, the student has an obligation to make sure that all the citations are correct. If you apply that standard — applied to this student who almost didn’t get into medical school as a result of this — when you apply that [standard] to President Gay, it’s not even a close question.”
He added that Harvard is sending a message that “there are two categories of people at Harvard: Those that come under the protection of diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI and the rest of the students, Jewish kids, Asian kids, kids who don’t come from protected minorities or backgrounds. And the school simply applies a double standard, if you’re a DEI-protected person, you don’t get fired. If you’re not a DEI-protected person and you do anything that amounts to even minimal plagiarism, you’re in trouble.”
Dershowitz further stated that Harvard’s “DEI board” doesn’t want to admit it messed up, but if more material comes out, it’s likely Gay will have to quit.
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