Academic whom Claudine Gay plagiarized calls for Harvard leader's firing: Need to get 'back towards sanity'

A retired Vanderbilt University professor and allegedly one of Harvard President Claudine Gay's plagiarism victims has called for the immediate firing of the embattled higher education leader to "steer the university back towards sanity."

"Fire Claudine Gay posthaste," Dr. Carol Swain posted Thursday on X, as part of a social media post titled "some free unsolicited advice for Harvard University."

"She can be relieved of duties until the terms are negotiated."

Swain, a senior fellow at the Institute for Faith, said that the Ivy League university must hire the best man or woman for the job who can "steer the university back towards sanity."

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"Hire the best man or woman who can steer the university back towards sanity," Swain continued. "Appeasing the Marxist identity politics mob should not be a consideration. The person for the job might be a middle to older age white Jewish man who believes in classical liberalism."

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Last week, Swain called for Gay to step down after Harvard officials chose to stand by their leader despite a probe finding "instances of inadequate citation."

On Thursday, Swain also recommended that Harvard University have a "sit down conversation" with the academics who Gay plagiarized from and apologize to alumni, students, parents and donors who have "been harmed and embarrassed" by Gay's behavior.

"Have a sit down conversation with the people who have been harmed by the plagiarism of Gay and the system that protects her. Rcognize that Harvard’s systematic racism and classism have far reaching effects," Swain said. "Apologize to alumni, students, parents, and donors who have been harmed and embarrassed."

Gay, who recently made headlines for refusing to say whether genocide of Jews was against Harvard policy during a congressional hearing, was accused of plagiarism on Dec. 12.

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The Washington Free Beacon reported that in four papers published between 1993 and 2017, including her doctoral dissertation, Gay "paraphrased or quoted nearly 20 authors — including two of her colleagues in Harvard University’s department of government — without proper attribution," according to an analysis by the investigative news site.

Since the initial reports of plagiarism, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Harvard "received a complaint outlining over 40 allegations of plagiarism" against Gay on Tuesday. 

A former Democrat, Swain has long stood out in academia as outspokenly conservative on many issues. She served on President Donald Trump's "1776 Commission," a response to the controversial "1619 Project" about slavery and the history of the U.S.

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Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Fox News' Brian Flood, Nikolas Lanum and David Rutz contributed to this report.