Bill Ackman Softens Stance On Plagiarism Amid Wife’s Dissertation Controversy: ‘Near Certainty That Authors Will…Fail To Cite At Least A Modest Percentage Of The Pages’

    Date:

    Loading…

    Loading…

    In a recent development, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has publicly softened his viewpoint on academic plagiarism following allegations made against his wife, Neri Oxman, for plagiarizing portions of her doctoral dissertation.

    What Happened: Ackman, in a detailed post on X on Sunday, suggested that it is nearly unavoidable for authors to miss some citations or neglect to appropriately attribute another author in their academic works. 

    “It is a near certainty that authors will miss some quotation marks and fail to properly cite or provide attribution for another author on at least a modest percentage of the pages of their papers,” Ackman said.

    “Some plagiarism is due to the laziness of the author… It is more a reflection of the competency and motivation of the faculty member,” Ackman noted.

    This outlook signifies a significant shift from his previous remarks, wherein he vehemently criticized Harvard President Claudine Gay over plagiarism allegations, as reported by Business Insider.

    Earlier, Ackman had spearheaded a campaign calling for Gay’s resignation in light of growing plagiarism allegations against her. Despite Harvard absolving Gay of “research misconduct,” she resigned following the discovery of two more instances of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution.”

    Currently, Oxman, Ackman’s wife and a former tenured MIT professor, is under similar plagiarism allegations. A recent media report discovered several instances in her academic work where she lifted sentences and paragraphs from other sources without giving proper credit. Oxman has confessed to the plagiarism, apologized, and pledged to revise her sourcing and make necessary amendments to her work.

    See Also: Kentucky Gov Beshear Wants To Add Glaucoma, AIDS And 13 More Conditions To Medical Marijuana Program

    Loading…

    Loading…

    Why It Matters: Ackman’s campaign against Gay started before the plagiarism allegations, triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. He expressed concerns to Gay about antisemitism on campus and demanded disciplinary action against students participating in antisemitic and pro-Palestinian actions.

    The tension between Ackman and Gay escalated after a Dec. 5 congressional hearing where Gay’s answers to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-NY) probing questions led Ackman to assert her comments were an “ethical failure” necessitating her resignation.

    Last week, Ackman said he would review the “work of all current MIT faculty” after his wife, Oxman, was accused of plagiarism, including MIT president Sally Kornbluth and the university’s board.

    Read Next: Trump’s Niece Says Ex-President ‘Bought And Paid For’ By Over 20 Foreign Governments After House Democrats’ Report: ‘This Is Already Grounds To Impeach Him’

    Image Via Wikimedia Commons


    Engineered by Benzinga Neuro, Edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote


    The GPT-4-based Benzinga Neuro content generation system exploits the extensive Benzinga Ecosystem, including native data, APIs, and more to create comprehensive and timely stories for you. Learn more.


    Loading…

    Loading…

    Go Source

    Chart

    Sign up for Breaking Alerts

    Share post:

    Popular

    More like this
    Related

    Imagine If We Could Annualize This Quarter…

    Many years ago, a very intelligent and experienced colleague...

    Waller Hawkishness Resists Accommodative Powell: Mar. 28, 2024

    Bond traders are reassessing their monetary policy expectations while...

    Hopping Into Q2 with Key Interim Data Events

    It has been a solid start to 2024 with...

    12,000 Calls Trade in Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (Symbol: PAA)

    This morning over 11,800 January 17 ’25 calls traded...