To the Editor:
Re “Gay Resigns After Charges of Plagiarism” (entrance web page, Jan. 3):
I’m saddened by the information of Claudine Homosexual’s resignation as president of Harvard. Saddened not as a result of I’ve any sympathy for her on account of her horrible congressional testimony or the plagiarism accusations leveled towards her. I don’t.
I’m saddened as a result of her resignation is a stark reminder of how treacherous public life could be and what number of proficient and succesful persons are discouraged from looking for careers in public service or different extremely seen positions due to the divisiveness permeating our society.
Simply contemplate what number of elected officers are voluntarily selecting to not return to Congress. And it explains in small half why nobody with any actual promise is difficult Donald Trump or Joe Biden because the doubtless nominees for the presidency. What we’re headed for as Claudine Homosexual resigns is uniform mediocrity.
Peter C. Alkalay
Scarsdale, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Harvard has handed the tradition warriors an enormous win. Consultant Elise Stefanik, who just lately grilled Claudine Homosexual at a listening to and relished the resignation of one other college president within the days that adopted, now has the marketing campaign adverts of her goals. And people on the opposite finish of the spectrum who see this as an assault on a robust Black girl have a brand new name to battle.
The right response of an educational establishment to allegations of plagiarism by its president is to assessment and consider them, after which to report on whether or not or not an issue exists. Allegations will not be details. By capitulating to the din of politically pushed allegations, Harvard has allowed the fires of political rage to overhaul reasoned discourse. It’s shameful, as a result of the instructing and observe of reasoned discourse is the very goal of a college.
Reasoned discourse can also be the very goal of our constitutional system. Harvard’s capitulation contributes to our system’s alarming deterioration.
Ron Meyers
New York
To the Editor:
Like so many, I used to be euphoric concerning the naming of Claudine Homosexual because the president of Harvard. I used to be deeply dissatisfied by her responses on the Home listening to on antisemitism on campus, however she apologized and clarified, and I believe it could have blown over with out the plagiarism allegations.
However this put the college in an inconceivable place. So long as she was serving as president, any Harvard undergraduate disciplined for plagiarism may sue the college. Harvard’s solely different would have been to tread calmly and attempt to ignore plagiarism throughout her tenure.
There’s additionally a rising dialog about A.I. and plagiarism. It’s onerous to think about Dr. Homosexual with the ability to step into this nationwide dialog, the place she would ordinarily belong, and onerous to think about the participation of the college as an establishment or college members — the place they might even be wanted — with out the hovering awkwardness and embarrassment of a sitting president who was saddled with that tutorial document. This might have been unsustainable.
I supported Dr. Homosexual, and her needing to resign breaks my coronary heart, however it appears that evidently she and the college had no different possible alternative.
James Adler
Cambridge, Mass.
The author is a Harvard Divinity College alumnus.
To the Editor:
Re “The Lesson Harvard Should Learn From Claudine Gay’s Resignation,” by Bret Stephens (column, Jan. 3):
Mr. Stephens claims that Dr. Homosexual owed her appointment to the presidency of Harvard to the insidious machinations of range, fairness and inclusion insurance policies, and that such insurance policies have eroded public confidence within the integrity of our universities. He pines for an earlier period when folks have been judged solely on benefit, not on demographics, at our establishments of upper studying.
As a 1985 alum of Harvard, I wish to guarantee Mr. Stephens that benefit was no extra (or much less) a consideration for who obtained into and taught at Harvard then as now. About 5 p.c of the tenured college was feminine on the time, and there have been virtually no college members of shade.
Is Mr. Stephens actually suggesting that nothing apart from consideration of benefit performed into the overwhelming white, male make-up of these I had as lecturers? And as for my classmates — there have been various whose admission to Harvard owed extra to their household of origin (of the rich, legacy type) than any definition of benefit.
The “social engineering” that Mr. Stephens deplores is in truth a response to the centuries of de facto social engineering that decided that solely sure folks have been worthy of admission to, and employment at, locations like Harvard.
As an alum, I’m deeply saddened by Dr. Homosexual’s resignation, and what it implies about the potential for actual change at my alma mater.
(Rabbi) Toba Spitzer
Waltham, Mass.
To the Editor:
Bret Stephens’s column is spot on about Claudine Homosexual and her very quick tenure at Harvard. Like him I consider that range, fairness and inclusion efforts have run amok and that Dr. Homosexual was appointed primarily based primarily on her race and gender, as evidenced by her very mild résumé.
D.E.I. can also be negatively affecting classroom instruction and majors, and I agree that it has many People, younger and previous, rethinking the worth and price of a college schooling.
Anne Ippolito
Knoxville, Tenn.
Migrants in New York
President Biden gave New York a present when he granted non permanent protected standing to Venezuelans. An unlimited effort to establish each eligible individual and course of their work authorizations would permit them to take jobs going vacant in key native industries, transferring them extra shortly out of shelters and into the mainstream financial system.
A cellular van contacting people earlier than their shelter keep expires to assist them contemplate choices and plan for his or her futures would shield kids at rapid danger of being yanked out of colleges which have welcomed them, disrupting their studying and creating additional trauma of their lives.
And a proposal submitted to philanthropists and the Metropolis of New York would display in 10 pilot partnerships how rather more could possibly be completed to unravel folks’s issues, get them licensed to work and spend money on constructing the subsequent technology of New Yorkers, as was completed for therefore a lot of our ancestors.
Ruth Messinger
New York
The author, a social justice marketing consultant and an immigrant heart volunteer, was the Manhattan borough president from 1990 to 1997 and the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York in 1997.
To the Editor:
Re “How to Stand Up to Trump,” by Debbie Dingell (Opinion visitor essay, Jan. 2):
I applaud Consultant Dingell’s dignified and sensible response to former President Donald Trump’s assaults on her and others he perceives as his enemies.
He transforms political opposition into private opposition and attracts handy allies to battle with him. He is aware of precisely what he’s doing, however I worry that not all of his followers perceive that he’s enjoying them as pawns.
He pretends to be a sufferer and encourages his followers to really feel victimized, too, often selling violent responses to perceived assaults. His vicious strategy serves solely to inflame political discourse and divide our residents — working instantly towards the values that actually make america, and different democratic societies, nice.
I hope all People heed Ms. Dingell’s name to bravery.
Charles Meyers
Merion Station, Pa.
