To the Editor:
Re “Why Claudine Gay Should Go,” by John McWhorter (column, nytimes.com, Dec. 21):
Mr. McWhorter argues that Claudine Homosexual, the president of Harvard, must be held to the identical tutorial requirements because the establishment’s undergraduates. If solely that had been true!
Once I was a graduate scholar there within the late Nineteen Nineties, I used to be warned by a senior professor to not pursue a case of plagiarism as a result of it’d result in a lawsuit. The college, he confided, had lately misplaced a expensive court docket case introduced by the dad and mom of a scholar accused of plagiarism.
Plagiarists are hardly ever dropped at account, particularly in academe, the place it’s typically handled as a minor delict. How do I do know? I’ve been plagiarized by a minimum of two different lecturers, together with a visiting professor at Harvard throughout my first yr of graduate college. Neither she nor the opposite offender ever confronted any penalties.
Andrew I. Port
Detroit
The author is a professor of historical past at Wayne State College.
To the Editor
Re “Harvard Finds More ‘Duplicative Language’ of President” (information article, Dec. 22):
I discover it fairly odd for The Instances to constantly lead the protection of Claudine Homosexual’s tutorial work with an overemphasis that “conservative” voices have pushed the claims of plagiarism.
The difficulty just isn’t the political background of the whistle-blowers, however the precise prices. I (hardly a conservative if it issues) wrote articles, a grasp’s thesis, a Ph.D. dissertation and a ebook, and I can assure that in every case I knew my writing and what I acquired from different sources (major and secondary).
Nothing bothered my mentor and pal, the late historian Stan Kutler, greater than plagiarists who claimed, after getting caught, that their stealing was an oversight, somewhat mistake, a slight error, an issue in checking content material. No, they merely acquired caught.
Dr. Homosexual would certainly assist a grad scholar’s expulsion for plagiarizing. Her flip.
Joseph L. Davis
Madison, Wis.
To the Editor:
The New York Instances has devoted a startling quantity of protection to finding out the query of Claudine Homosexual’s plagiarism. Might I recommend that earlier than devoting extra, the newspaper’s reporters may need to study publications by all of the Harvard presidents who got here earlier than her? And maybe a few of these by its most well-known professors, too.
The pc expertise that exists right this moment might enable critics to scrutinize her writings excess of any previous scholar’s work was scrutinized when such technological capabilities didn’t exist.
Let’s see how a lot she is an outlier in her group — or not — earlier than condemning her so roundly.
Janna Malamud Smith
Milton, Mass.
The author graduated from Harvard in 1973.
The Bronx Defenders and the Fallout From Struggle
To the Editor:
Re “Feud Over War Imperils Future of Legal Group; Claims of Antisemitism at Bronx Defenders” (entrance web page, Dec. 15):
I’m an legal professional and a former priest at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church within the South Bronx.
The Bronx Defenders are among the many greatest legal professionals within the metropolis. A lawyer’s obligation is to characterize a shopper “zealously,” and the Bronx Defenders characterize their shoppers passionately. I at all times felt assured after they represented a parishioner or somebody I knew from the group.
Apparently they create the identical ardour to advocating for Palestinians, seeing the hardships they face as just like these of their South Bronx shoppers.
I urgently hope that they will see that, all through historical past, the Jewish folks have suffered from prejudice that can also be just like the unfairness their shoppers have skilled, and, for the sake of their shoppers, save the Bronx Defenders.
(Rev.) Martha General
New York
To the Editor:
Your article concerning the Bronx Defenders epitomizes my deepest fears concerning the results of the Israel-Hamas struggle on the USA.
Longstanding progressive American allies within the campaigns at no cost speech, civil rights, marriage equality, reproductive freedom, L.G.B.T.Q. protections, academic and authorized reform, well being take care of all, reasonably priced housing, tutorial freedom, animal and environmental safety — and extra — are combating one another over assist for Israel versus assist for Palestine as if no compromise had been doable and this one level of battle outweighed years of cooperative work, private friendships and even household ties.
Marches, flag-waving and ill-informed slogan-shouting, particularly on faculty campuses, can have little impact on the struggle, however they could alienate sufficient usually Democratic voters to let Donald Trump win an in depth election. That might hurt the nation past our wildest imagining far into the longer term.
Judy Olinick
Middlebury, Vt.
Undoing Roe: ‘A Shameful Saga’
To the Editor:
Re “Behind the Scenes at the Dismantling of Roe” (entrance web page, Dec. 17):
This sensible account of the undoing of Roe v. Wade exposes a shameful saga of partisan judging by justices who had been dedicated to ending a girl’s constitutional proper to an abortion whilst they misled the Senate about their respect for long-settled precedent.
Appointed by then-President Donald Trump with the mandate of reversing Roe, the three latest justices joined the reactionary core of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to style a choice that may reside in infamy, rivaled in shame solely by the instances of Residents United and Dred Scott.
The story of how the conservative majority manipulated the calendaring and listening to of the case, and their activism in going past the restricted reduction initially sought by Mississippi, will additional erode public confidence within the integrity of the court docket and undermine its legitimacy as a as soon as revered establishment.
Gerald Harris
New York
The author is a retired New York Metropolis Legal Court docket decide.
Shopping for Cashmere With out an Environmental Price
To the Editor:
Re “Demand for Cashmere Is Harming the Environment,” by Ginger Allington (Opinion visitor essay, Dec. 17):
Whereas, in fact, we should do all we are able to to protect the extremely fragile world we stroll on, we are able to personal cashmere — purchase it used!
Dr. Allington’s vivid essay teaches us to eschew the material that comes from the damaging practices utilized in herding Mongolian goats. However, as she says, “take into account classic cashmere.” We will head to our nearest consignment store or different retailer of preworn clothes and discover cashmere treasures for our family members throughout these alarming instances.
Right here’s to such heat!
Deborah Fried
New Haven, Conn.
To the Editor:
Thanks a lot for Ginger Allington’s visitor essay on low cost cashmere fibers. It’s as much as each certainly one of us to make a distinction by selecting sustainable choices.
I had the luxurious of shopping for a number of actual cashmere sweaters within the Nineteen Seventies. I’m nonetheless sporting them! And I’ve simply inherited a batch from my mom’s closet which are all nonetheless completely wearable due to the standard. A budget cashmere that’s being produced is doubly egregious as a result of it received’t final one season.
At what price quick style? Is it the hen or the egg? Patrons ought to cease shopping for, or producers ought to cease producing?
Susan Inventory
Toronto