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'

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.

Last night, no one at @MIT had a good night's sleep.

Yesterday evening, shortly after I posted that we were launching a plagiarism review of all current MIT faculty, President Kornbluth, members of MIT's administration, and its board, I am sure that an audible collective gasp…

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 7, 2024

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.

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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.

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