Staples Inc.
Thomas G. Stemberg, prominent Harvard alumnus and Staples Inc. founder, wrote a heavily critical letter addressed to Faust dated January 6, 2013. Stemberg was co-chair of the Friends of Harvard Basketball fundraising group. The 2012–13 Harvard Crimson men's basketball team lost two stars to the scandal. Stemberg criticized Harvard for punishing students who used collaborative notes alongside those who copied answers. He alleged that students had escaped punishment by lying in their testimony. He called Platt and other undergraduate instructors "clearly not qualified." Stemberg said to "Bloomberg News" "Those students who cut and pasted exam answers deserved to get kicked out. The rest of them should have been vindicated, and the faculty member fired." The other co-chair Thomas W. Mannix disapproved of how the media focused on the basketball team and individual players.