The University of Harvard has stripped a world renowned scholar in its occupation status. The best board of directors of the University, the Harvard Corporation, decided this month to revoke the mandate of Francesca Gino and to end his job at the Harvard Business School.
Gino, who was celebrated for his research on honesty and ethical behavior, had faced scathing allegations of academic and fraud mischief.
Several sources tell GBH News that Harvard administrators informed the business faculty of their decision at a closed-door meeting last week, and a university spokesman confirmed this decision. Gino did not immediately respond to several requests for comments.
In 2023 Harvard launched an internal investigation into Gino’s work after concerns were raised on a blog called Data Colada, managed by a group of behavioral scientists who examine university research. Harvard’s investigation concluded that Gino had manipulated certain data to support his hypotheses in at least four of his studies.
At this stage, the University has placed it on unpaid administrative leave.
Gino denied the allegations and filed a 25 million dollars against Harvard, the dean of the Harvard Business School Srikant Datar and the Data Colada Bloggers. In court, she affirmed defamation, discrimination based on sex and invasion of privacy. She also said the charges have irreparably damaged her reputation and her career.
Last September, a Federal Judge of Boston rejected Gino defamation requests against Harvard and bloggers, judging that she is a public figure, and their examination of his work was protected by the first amendment.
At a time when American higher education and science are under intense control, the case of Gino sparked a general debate within the university community – raising questions about the integrity of research, the responsibility of institutions to fight against scientific misconducts and the balance between the protection of teachers’ reputations and ensuring transparency.
Harvard refused to develop the termination and revocation of Gino, saying that it was a question of staff. But the school noted that undressing him a mandate teacher is a step that she has not taken for decades.
And GBH News could not find any other example of the Harvard Corporation stripping a full professor of their status.
Before resigning from Harvard president under pressure in January 2024, Claudine Gay faced a burst of plagiarism allegations. His high -level resignation followed a meticulous examination on his testimony to the congress on the anti -Semitism of the campus. The Harvard Corporation did not find a plagiarism in its case, but an “inadequate quote” and Gay still occupies a position of full professor in the department of African-American studies of the university.
Professors of the Harvard Business School familiar with the case of Gino said they were reluctant to be named publicly, invoking concerns about the transmission of an increase in anti-intellectualism and what they characterize as the incessant attacks of the Trump administration against Harvard and academic freedom.
Thursday, in a major escalation of the fight between the administration and the university, the Department of Internal Security moved to revoke the authority of Harvard to register international academics – a quarter of his student body – unless he puts disciplinary files and images related to campus demonstrations. Such a revocation would be devastating for Harvard, in particular its higher schools which register a high number of international students. Harvard continued and a federal judge blocked the action of the administration for the moment. An audience in the case is scheduled for Thursday.
Some teachers say they fear that President Trump and his supporters undergo public confidence at Harvard in particular and higher education in general – and as a result, the United States could lose a generation of researchers at national and abroad. Originally from Italy, Gino has acquired a global reputation in the academic world and business, making presentations to fortune companies 500 around the world. More than A third of the students enrolled in the MBA program of the Harvard Business School Come from abroad, often paying for tuition fees and helping to subsidize the cost of domestic students receiving financial assistance from the university.
Some lawyers claim that revocations and layoffs like Gino could be more common if universities adopted a more proactive approach to discover academic bad behavior. But this kind of police could have unwanted consequences.
“Retention of the faculty a large number of teachers who make complaints and revolutionary discovery allegations is something that attracts money by attention – something that draws the attention of students,” said Eugenie Reich, a lawyer based in Boston representing the reporters who report scientific fraud.
“There are a number of measures that university establishments could very easily implement to prevent and reduce fraud,” said Reich. “They do not imply them because they do not want (attract negative attention).”