Investor Who Pushed for Harvard President’s Exit Sees His Wife Accused of Plagiarism

World Investor Who Pushed for Harvard President’s Exit Sees His Wife Accused of Plagiarism By Julia Carroll – January 6, 2024 Claims of plagiarism are emerging as the latest tools in the ongoing power dispute over the administration and direction of esteemed universities. Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, for the past several weeks, has been vocal on social media against Claudine Gay. Gay recently left her position as Harvard’s president amid allegations of plagiarizing work of other researchers and not being firm enough against antisemitism on the campus.

The clash took a personal turn after Business Insider, a digital news platform, published similar complaints of plagiarism concerning Mr. Ackman’s spouse, Neri Oxman, an architect and designer holding a Ph. D.

in design computation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Business Insider quoted on Friday that Dr. Oxman reportedly “borrowed sentences and complete paragraphs from Wikipedia, other scholars, and technical documents in her academic composition.

” Business Insider’s examples surfaced a day after the platform reported several lapses in crediting others’ work in her doctoral thesis. Dr. Oxman apologized for those inaccuracies on Thursday and stated that the issue only concerned a few paragraphs in her 330-page lengthy thesis.

On Friday evening, before Business Insider published its newest article, Mr. Ackman tweeted that the platform had reached out to his wife regarding its latest discoveries, but neither he nor Dr. Oxman could verify the accuracy of the claims due to time constraints.

Mr. Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital, voiced his regret on the social media platform, X, where he boasts a million followers, that his efforts to tackle problems in higher education incited these onslaughts on his family. In his reply, he mentioned starting a plagiarism review targeting all present faculty members, Sally Kornbluth, M.

I. T. president, the university’s management body, and would make the findings public.

“These recent events have motivated me to save all news platforms the hassle of conducting plagiarism reviews,” Mr. Ackman wrote. He tweeted again on Friday that he would inspect the work of reporters at Business Insider.

It’s uncertain whether his intent of focusing on Dr. Kornbluth is because his spouse received her Ph. D.

at that university or because he believed Dr. Kornbluth inadequately condemned antisemitism at a congressional hearing conducted last month. Mr.

Ackman chose not to comment further than his posts on X. M. I.

T. ’s spokesperson, Kimberly Allen, mentioned in an email that the institute’s leaders maintain their concentration on ensuring the important work of M. I.

T. individuals carries on, as it’s crucial to the country’s security, prosperity, and living standards. Jonathan Bailey, a copyright and plagiarism consultant who also manages the website Plagiarism Today, voiced concerns about plagiarism becoming a tactical weapon.

Bailey is worried about a forthcoming surge in hasty analyses attempting to exaggerate minor issues or establish plagiarism even if the evidence is lacking. The initial allegations against Dr. Oxman by Business Insider happened on Thursday, two days post the step-down of Dr.

Gay. The charges appeared to mirror those against Dr. Gay.

Dr. Oxman issued an apology the same day. In her writing on X, she stated, “As I have committed my career to propelling science and innovation, I have consistently acknowledged the marked importance of my peers’ efforts and those preceding me.

” In the Artificial Intelligence era, making plagiarism accusations could be simplified and can easily be manipulated by any party in a disagreement. Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor, claims, “Indisputably on both sides, plagiarism has morphed into a weapon, much like how the criminal justice system has been manipulated. ” He added, “Everything in America is being weaponized these days.

” Dr. Gay was called out for plagiarism in her 1997 Harvard doctoral thesis and in other educational papers. Harvard reports that she acknowledged a few citation errors and requested corrections.

The university’s decision-making body noted that an independent review panel of three members had absolved her of academic dishonesty but did not publicly disclose the panelists’ identities. Dr. Gay’s reputation was severely damaged by Mr.

Ackman, who frequently criticized her. Post Dr. Gay stepping down as president, Mr.

Ackman denounced the call to let her continue on the Harvard faculty. “There wouldn’t be any problem with her remaining on the faculty if she wasn’t grappling with grave plagiarism issues,” Mr. Ackman posted on X .

He added that rewarding her “with a highly salaried faculty position sets a grim precedent for academic integrity at Harvard. ” After the charges against Dr. Oxman were published by Business Insider on Thursday, Mr.

Ackman penned on X, “You know you have made an impact when they go after your better half, in this situation, my life companion, @NeriOxman. ” In its inaugural piece, Business Insider indicted Dr. Oxman of plagiarizing “several paragraphs” from her 2010 doctoral thesis at M.

I. T. , including at least one section brazenly reproduced from other writers without citing them.

On Thursday, Dr. Oxman, formerly a tenured faculty member at M. I.

T. ’s Media Lab, clarified that she had mentioned the sources but “forgotten quote marks around specific work that I used” in four paragraphs of her 330-page lengthy dissertation. Business Insider claims that not including quote marks is a clear violation of M.

I. T. ’s academic integrity guidelines as they stood during Dr.

Oxman’s time and now. In her thesis, Dr. Oxman also apologized on Thursday for paraphrasing a sentence from Claus Mattheck’s book sans a citation.

In a 2018 profile by The New York Times, Dr. Oxman was depicted as a brilliant and eccentric scholar who created a discipline she christened material ecology, working “with natural organisms like slime molds, monarchs, and silkworms, to construct remarkable objects and structures capable of remarkable feats. ” Born in Israel, she served as a first lieutenant in the Israeli Air Force.

She married Mr. Ackman in 2019. The research contributions of Kirsten Noyes were acknowledged.

Wife of Investor Who Advocated for Harvard President’s Resignation Accused of Plagiarism TAGS accused exit Harvard Investor plagiarism presidents Pushed sees wife Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Linkedin ReddIt Email Telegram Previous article Prosecutors Push Back on Trump’s Contempt Claims in Election Case Julia Carroll.