For three minutes and 28 seconds on December 5th, Claudine Gay was in the spotlight in my hearing room.
Although he may not have realized it at the time, the troubled former president made it clear on the witness stand that he was unfit to lead the university. Clips of her devastating answers to everyday questions have garnered hundreds of millions of views online. Shortly after, nearly 50 plagiarisms of her from her past works were revealed, after which she decided to bid her farewell. Editorial In the New York Times.
After a month of reflection, her swan song to NYT readers ended with a final act of fraud that interrupted her career. It was an attempt to reaffirm the sanctity of her academic work despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
Doubling down on the final lie seems appropriate, even ironic, as she portrays her resignation as the ultimate act of martyrdom for the truth. Gay's final sentence states, “Universities must remain independent spaces where courage and reason come together to advance truth, no matter what forces oppose them.”
Gaye's choice to make the theme of truth the centerpiece of his farewell essay is undeniably brazen. The truth may be a translation of Harvard University's founding motto, “Veritas,” but it is the antithesis of the academic crimes she is accused of.
In his final public appearance, Gay maintained that his scholarship remained steadfast. She countered that, after her obstinacy undermined her academic integrity, she was the victim of racist outside political forces seeking to destroy public trust in the university. After removing entire paragraphs from her other academics, she can seek solace from the $900,000-a-year shackles.
The truth is: Gay plagiarism was a crime for which Harvard students were subject to expulsion and suspension. Facing a crisis of anti-Semitism on campus, gays failed in their duty to protect Harvard's Jewish students. And the weakening of educational institutions and academic expertise, not by critics of elite universities in and outside Congress, but by people like her who have turned our nation's great universities into bastions of ideological conformity where dissent exists. It is the handiwork of managers and bureaucrats. It is unacceptable, double standards are rampant, and sound scholarship takes a backseat to progressive activist policies.
No one has done more to destroy public trust in universities than Claudine Gay over the past few months. As for her departure, she says she's done with it.
When we sat down for testimony on December 5th, whether Harvard had a gay president or not was unimportant to the Education and Labor Committee's goals, but her farewell essay through which we embody the problem we are trying to address.
The problem is not limited to anti-Semitism or DEI. The problem is not with Harvard itself. It is the political and bureaucratic elements throughout academia that subvert the mission of universities to pursue truth. Gays were the worst offenders in that regard.
Politics has taken over college campuses, causing great institutional damage to universities like Harvard. Look no further than the dogmatic defense of gays by Harvard and other academics. Despite mounting evidence against her, they steadfastly refused to concede a cultural victory to conservatives.
We need to realign university incentives and truth-seeking values. Now more than ever, accountability is needed to ensure that postsecondary education delivers on its promise.
The Commission has a bold vision for accountability. The structures we are building will allow universities to be open and transparent about foreign funding, improve student outcomes and reduce costs, improve speech policies on campus, and improve public access to universities. We focus on other factors that contribute to the decline in trust.
Universities also have a role to play in the future. While the national restoration of university culture will always require Congressional efforts, scholars and administrators must learn from their disgraced colleagues at Harvard. If Claudine Gay had a conflicting opinion, they should be tolerant. If she was dishonest, they are bound to pursue the truth. If she was selfish, they must serve the national interest.
Only then can America regain its position as the world's best postsecondary educator.
Virginia Foxx has represented North Carolina's 5th Congressional District since 2005.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
