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Bill Ackman is not letting up on the Claudine Gay plagiarism allegations

Jan 2, 2024, 14:28 IST
Business Insider
Bill Ackman (left) and Claudine Gay (right).Patrick McMullan via Getty Images; Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
  • Bill Ackman isn't done with Harvard and Claudine Gay just yet.
  • Ackman took to X on New Year's Day to rip his alma mater's handling of Gay's plagiarism allegations.
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It may be 2024, but one thing hasn't changed: Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is still committed to his pressure campaign on Harvard to fire its president, Claudine Gay.

Ackman published several posts on X on Monday where he criticized Harvard's handling of allegations that Gay plagiarized work.

Ackman in his New Year's Day posts further accused the board of attempting to "quash a legitimate whistleblower inquiry into President Gay's work by threatening the media with litigation if they published the whistleblower's allegations."

Ackman, citing a whistleblower's report to The Washington Free Beacon, accused Harvard of violating its own procedures and policies when handling Gay's case.

"I am sorry to say this, but in the event that any of the above is true, which looks increasingly likely, this is a scandal and a stain on the reputation of Harvard that goes far beyond President Gay," Ackman wrote on X.

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Ackman also called for an "immediate investigation" against the board by the "unimpeachable members of the Harvard Board of Overseers."

This, he said, will "determine if, in fact, Harvard's own whistleblower protection policies have been violated, and the other alleged governance and investigative failures are true."

"Only sunlight will remove the stain on the University's reputation," Ackman wrote. "It is time for the sun to shine."

In December, the New York Post reported that Harvard threatened to sue it for "immense" damages for covering the plagiarism allegations against Gay's academic publications.

Harvard's lawyers said in a letter to the New York Post in October that the plagiarism claims were "demonstrably false." A review conducted by the university eventually found some instances of "duplicative language without appropriate attribution" in Gay's work.

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Gay's tenure as Harvard's president has been rough. Since taking office in July, she's had to answer tough questions about antisemitism at Harvard, and has weathered calls for her resignation.

And Ackman has been one of Gay's most vocal critics. He's now written three open letters to Harvard's leadership protesting Gay's handling of antisemitism on campus.

"In her short tenure as President, Claudine Gay has done more damage to the reputation of Harvard University than any individual in our nearly 500-year history," Ackman wrote in his third open letter.

The Harvard Corporate Board has stood by Gay. The board said in a statement on December 12 that they believe Gay "is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing."

Representatives for Ackman and Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

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