A Harvard spokesman clarified his remarks on College administrators’
handling of the plagiarism allegations against Kaavya Viswanathan ’08
this morning, after the news service Bloomberg reported that the College would investigate the sophomore novelist.
“The
term ‘investigation’ has been used in the press. It is not a term that
we have used, so it is not entirely accurate,” Robert Mitchell, the
director of communications for Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences,
said in a phone interview this morning.
“We would need to
gather much more information on this situation before we could make any
kind of judgment,” Mitchell said. “Bloomberg decided to call ‘gathering
information’ an ‘investigation.’ This is not a term that we have used.”
Viswanathan appeared on NBC's Today Show
this morning for an interview with host Katie Couric. The
sophomore said: "When I was writing, I genuinely believed each word was
my own."
Viswanathan told Couric: "I'm just really grateful to have this chance to explain what really happened from my perspective, and—."
Couric interrupted, "Some people might say you didn't really explain it, though."
Viswanathan responded: "Well, I've tried my best, and all I can tell is the truth."
Viswanathan told Couric that she is currently “taking a few days off”
from Harvard.
-Michael M. Grynbaum and Anton S. Troianovski contributed to the reporting of this story.
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