In the United States (and many other places), universities, for some reason, are rated hierarchically. One wonders how to make sense of an inegalitarian university system. Are students at a prestigious university taught differently than at a less prestigious university? Are there different academic requirements for obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in sociology at different universities? Do not most physical universities have professors, textbooks, classes, and exams? If so, then why do some people pander to the inegalitarianism of university elitism?
One university, in particular, is perennially in the upper stratosphere of universities. Harvard University finds itself at the apex of university rankings, both in the US and worldwide.
Why is Harvard so great ratings-wise? Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust states, “People make a university great…”
Harvard boasts that seven of its alumni have become US presidents and that 40 Nobel laureates have been “produced” among its faculty.
To assemble its sublime faculty, Harvard conducts nationwide or worldwide searches for “leading scholars and teachers in their fields” when appointing professors to tenured positions.
One Harvard law professor, Dr. Alan Dershowitz, appears to be guilty of plagiarism, fabrication, and sabotage. Frank J. Menetrez, PhD in philosophy and JD from UCLA, investigated in detail the charges of plagiarism leveled by Dr. Norman Finkelstein against Dershowitz.
Menetrez said that he received no response from the Harvard associate dean for academic affairs, N. Catherine Claypoole, on this identical errors issue and an incoherent response from Dershowitz. This issue is vital to the integrity of Harvard.
I reposed Menetrez’s question to Claypoole, with a copy to Dershowitz: “When Harvard looked into the plagiarism charges against Professor Dershowitz, did Harvard investigate the issue of allegedly identical errors in From Time Immemorial and The Case for Israel.”
The failure to provide a straight answer to Menetrez’s question about whether Harvard investigated Finkelstein’s identical errors argument, despite Menetrez’s persistent inquiries, suggests that Harvard either did not investigate the identical errors issue or that it covered up its finding.
If, indeed, the investigation was not carried out on the identical errors issue, then Dershowitz appears to have made repeated and public misrepresentations about this misconduct. Furthermore, based on this — what appears to be uninvestigated — issue, Dershowitz has involved the reputation of Harvard University to cover up his own seeming misconduct. He also used Harvard’s backing of him to successfully campaign against tenure approval to Finkelstein.
Most fair-minded and honest people would concur with the sentiments expressed by Menetrez:
Harvard has a moral obligation to Finkelstein to acknowledge, at a bare minimum, that it has never completely cleared Dershowitz of Finkelstein’s plagiarism charges, because it has never rejected Finkelstein’s argument concerning the identical errors in The Case for Israel and From Time Immemorial.
Frank J. Menetrez, “The Case Against Alan Dershowitz,” CounterPunch, 13 February 2008.
Was Dershowitz guilty of plagiarism? The question still hangs.
Plagiarism by professors is considered a major violation of academic standards that usually results in suspension or firing. Perhaps the biggest blow is to the integrity of the academic. Reputation is only as good as an individual’s or institution’s fidelity to integrity. In the case of Harvard, the refusal to openly investigate and divulge detailed findings on serious charges, along with the appearance of covering up academic dishonesty, speaks unfavorably to an institution which claims its greatness is based on its people.
Whether Harvard falls or not in university rankings is picayune. That the charge of plagiarism against one member of its faculty remains unconvincingly refuted besmirches an institution that should be at the forefront of protecting academic honesty.