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It is at this point Cambridge faces questions about whether it was defending its own reputation as much as an individual academic.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the university was briefing journalists that this was a campaign against a black academic, its appointment system was rigorous, and it would be robustly defended.
So why might Cambridge have had a blind spot that delayed an investigation which could settle the matter?
The university has spent the last decade working to redress the perception that the institution is a bastion of affluent white privilege.
Roger Mosey, the former master of the university's Selwyn College, said Arday's academic background was "unconventional" for a Cambridge professor, but that his life story as an autistic man who said he could not read until he was 18 was what had seemingly "made him a compelling candidate".
Equality, diversity and inclusion are reasonable goals for a leading university, Mosey wrote in the Times, but risk becoming contentious "when they are baked into inflexible policies and questionable appointment processes".
Part of the answer may also lie in how black academics feel in general as part of a tiny minority in the wider university community.
In the last academic year, only 75 of Cambridge's 6,180 academics at all levels were identified as black, according to the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA).
If you look at professors across the UK, 270 are identified as black out of a total of more than 26,000, according to HESA definitions - around 1%.
The University and College Union has previously highlighted an ethnicity pay gap and called for it to be redressed. It declined to comment on this case.
Both Cambridge and Oxford have faced sustained scrutiny over their whiteness as institutions, with vocal critics over the last 15 years including the MP David Lammy.
He extracted data from the universities showing how few offers were made to black students despite the number being awarded top A-Level grades which would potentially qualify them for a place.
In 2018, Cambridge said it needed help to attract more talented black students, and unexpectedly the rapper Stormzy answered the call by setting up a scholarship to encourage students to apply.
Although the support was for a handful of students, it was a reputational coup for the university - allowing it to position itself as a more open and inclusive institution.
Now it will have to balance the potential reputational fall out of the Jason Arday row for its academic credibility, with how that might be perceived by future talented black students and academics.
