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Harvard's Claudine Gay resignation shows 'final corruption of most elite
institutions,' says William Bennett
Disgrace caused by culture that favors leftist orthodoxy over merit, say
William Bennett and Victor Davis Hanson
By Kerry J. Byrne Fox News
Published January 2, 2024 7:37pm EST
F

Harvard president Claudine Gay announces resignation
Fox News correspondent Molly Line breaks down the Harvard president's
resignation on 'Special Report.'

FIRST ON FOX — Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned on
Tuesday — marking a cataclysmic failure of the leftist orthodoxy that
has consumed higher education in recent decades, said two leading
academics.

"What we see here is an example of the final corruption of our most
elite institutions," former U.S. Department of Education Secretary
William Bennett told Fox News Digital.

The damage to America's oldest, and long its most prestigious
university, could have ripple effects on wider society, Bennett also
indicated.

IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS FOUNDED TO PROMOTE VIRTUE, GODLINESS HAVE ‘DRIFTED
RADICALLY’ AND FORGOTTEN THEIR ROOTS

"The American people do not need more discouragement toward the
institutions they once looked up to," he said.

Bennett studied at Harvard Law School and taught at the university — but
he is now pessimistic about the institution's ability to refurbish its
reputation.

Bill Bennett
William Bennett, former education secretary, believes the Claudine Gay
scandal at Harvard University could have a damaging ripple effect on
wider American society, he told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. (Tom
Williams/CQ Roll Call)

"Can Harvard recover? Yes. Will it recover? No. These problems are too
ingrained," he said.

Gay was hired in 2022 amid great fanfare as the first Black woman to
serve as Harvard president. Yet her resume fell far short of the
traditional accomplishments of the position, critics assert.

The Ivy League school's newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, indicated that
Gay's resignation will bring an end to the shortest Harvard presidency
in the university's history.

"Can Harvard recover? Yes. Will it recover? No. These problems are too
ingrained." — William Bennett to Fox News Digital

"We once expected the president of Harvard to be the leading academic in
the nation," Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover
Institution, told Fox News Digital in an interview last week, before Gay
resigned.

Hanson posted on X on Tuesday, following the announcement, "To
paraphrase Churchill, Harvard had an initial choice between a scandal
and dishonor. It chose dishonor and now it will have scandal."

Harvard President Claudine Gay
Claudine Gay testified before Congress in December 2023 over
antisemitism on the college campus — which she refused to condemn.
(Getty Images)

Bennett agreed that the president of Harvard "used to be the most
respected position in the country."

Gay became the focus of nationwide controversy in December when she
refused to condemn antisemitism on the Harvard campus when she was
questioned before Congress.

HARVARD PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY RESIGNS AMID ANTISEMITISM, PLAGIARISM
CONTROVERSIES

"This is a shame," said Bennett. "She equivocated on a question that had
a clear answer and then we found nearly 50 cases of plagiarism."

In the spotlight that followed, it was revealed that Gay had a limited
record of academic achievement and had been hired despite publishing
papers that liberally copied from the work of others.

Teddy Roosevelt
President Theodore Roosevelt was told, "I will get you the president,"
when trying to reach Harvard's top officer Charles Eliot, in a story
relayed by William Bennett that speaks to the prestige once enjoyed by
the university. (Getty Images)

Bennett relayed an anecdote speaking to the power and prestige once
enjoyed by the position.

"There is a story that President [Theodore] Roosevelt would call Harvard
when he wanted to speak to Charles Eliot," the school's president, said
Bennett.

"The secretary would answer the phone and say ‘Hold on, Mr. Roosevelt. I
will get you the president.’"

"We once expected the president of Harvard to be the leading academic in
the nation." — Victor Davis Hanson to Fox News Digital

The secretary was reminding the commander-in-chief of the United States,
Bennett said, of just "who he was asking for."

In the case of Gay, Harvard initially defended her even as charges of
plagiarism mounted — euphemistically referring to her actions as
"duplicative language." In Dr. Gay’s 1997 doctoral dissertation, Harvard
said it found two examples of "duplicative language without appropriate
attribution," as Fox News Digital earlier reported.

Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson on Fox News. "She was an affirmative action hire,"
he said of Claudine Gay, who just resigned as president of Harvard
University. (Fox News)

‘Affirmative action hire’
Both Bennett and Hanson said that Gay was hired based upon "diversity,
equity and including" (DEI) considerations that today have replaced
meritocracy in education and elsewhere in society.

"She was an affirmative action hire," Hanson said last week. "We’ve lost
the tradition that in America anybody of any class, any race or any
ideology will be judged in the marketplace of ideas for their performance."

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO WROTE THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, FRANCIS BELLAMY,
FOUND ALLY IN NATION'S TOP TEACHERS

He added on Tuesday on X, "If Harvard appoints as its permanent
president another candidate on the basis of DEI without a record of
substantial scholarship, intellectual probity, recognized teaching, and
administrative excellence, then the university will only reinforce the
now growing consensus that it has abandoned even the veneer of meritocracy."

Bennett blamed Gay's hire on "the crazy race consciousness of the
university now. Special consideration is given to race both in the
admission process and in hiring, and even in putting in their presiding
officer."

Harvard protest trucks
Protest trucks demanding that Claudine Gay be fired from Harvard were
circling the Ivy League campus recently. (Fox News Digital)

"We’re not getting people based on merit anymore, and it’s permeating
all of society," said Bennett.

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It appears the Harvard University board has continued to focus on race,
even in accepting Gay's resignation.

"The question I always get asked by parents is ‘Is Harvard worth it?'
The answer is no, I don’t think it is anymore." — William Bennett

"While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has
taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at
her through disgraceful emails and phone calls," the board statement
read, in part.

Claudine Gay and William Bennett
Claudine Gay, left, resigned as president of Harvard University on
Tuesday, Jan. 2, in the wake of controversies that sullied the
reputation of America's oldest and one of its most prestigious
university. Former U.S. Department of Education Secretary William
Bennett, right, told Fox News Digital it was "an example of the final
corruption of our most elite institutions." (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images;
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Bennett said he’s "greatly disappointed and embarrassed by what [Harvard
has] become. It’s not the Harvard that I went to."

He added, "The question I always get asked by parents is, ‘Is Harvard
worth it?' The answer is no, I don’t think it is anymore. The luster
Harvard once enjoyed is now coming off."

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In a letter to members of the Harvard community, Gay said she was
stepping down as president — but that she would return to the Harvard
faculty despite the plagiarism allegations against her.

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.

Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.

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ClaudeBalls779
1 hour ago

Can we expect her doctorate to be withdrawn since it was base on
plagiarism? And meanwhile, just think of what kind of people these
institutions have been turning out for several years now. Those people
are finding their way into business and law and politics.

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TheHumanRace(ist)658
18 minutes ago

This is why drastic action is needed to fight the threat of leftism in
our country. We (the American people) fell asleep at the wheel to an
extent by allowing these leftist propagandists and demagogs to influence
our children from 50 years ago. Gay was a result of that indoctrination
herself. Polit...See more