In a letter to the Harvard community, Gay wrote, “It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president.”
In a letter to the Harvard community, Gay wrote, “It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president.”
Harvard President Claudine Gay announced her resignation on Jan. 2, stepping down just six months into her presidency amidst a significant controversy at the university. In a letter to the Harvard community, Gay wrote, “It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president.”
“After consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual,” Gay stated. She did not specify the exact date of her formal resignation but described the decision as “difficult beyond words.”
Upheaval
Gay’s resignation occurs during a time of significant upheaval at one of America’s most prestigious universities, signifying the conclusion of the presidency of the first Black president and the second woman in Harvard’s nearly 400-year history.
The controversy surrounding Harvard involved CEOs, billionaires, influential donors, and even congressional leaders.
Gay decided to step down as Harvard’s president late last week, according to a source close to her. The timing suggests that Gay had already planned to resign before new plagiarism allegations surfaced, which were first reported by the Washington Free Beacon on Jan. 1.
Claudine Gay acknowledged the short length of her tenure, expressing that when her brief presidency is remembered, she hopes it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity and “of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education.”
Support
In a Jan. 2 letter, the Harvard Corporation defended Claudine Gay and expressed acceptance of her resignation “with sorrow.” The Corporation, serving as the university’s governing body, commended her for demonstrating “remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks.”
Gay’s presidency was marred, in part, by a persistent plagiarism scandal and a disastrous congressional hearing last month.
During the hearing, she, along with other university presidents, failed to explicitly state that calls for the genocide of Jewish people constituted bullying and harassment on campus.
The Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel have heightened tensions on some college campuses, leading to hundreds of protests and counter protests. Some of these events have turned violent.
Mobile billboards near the campuses of both Harvard and Columbia displayed the faces and names of some students allegedly linked to anti-Israel statements. Additionally, the University of Pennsylvania, another Ivy League school, reported violent antisemitic threats against some faculty members to the FBI.
Accusations
In a separate matter, Gay faced widespread criticism following accusations of plagiarism, with multiple instances of missing quotation marks and citations.
Harvard recently announced that Gay intended to submit corrections to her 1997 PhD dissertation to address instances of “inadequate citation,” in addition to corrections previously issued for a pair of scholarly articles she wrote in the 2000s.
Notably, the university characterized those corrections as “regrettable” but determined that they did not meet the threshold for punishable research misconduct.
CNN consulted with two plagiarism experts regarding new allegations against Claudine Gay, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon. Both experts stated that elements of Gay’s 2001 article, titled “The Effect of Minority Districts and Minority Representation on Political Participation in California,” constituted plagiarism.
Several sentences from scholar David T. Canon’s 1999 book were found in Claudine Gay’s article. However, Gay failed to use quotation marks or cite the work in two passages, and his end notes closely resembled her footnotes.
Experts underscored that the author’s feelings are not considered in assessing potential plagiarism. Plagiarism and copyright consultant Jonathan Bailey stated to CNN that Gay’s resignation was “likely the best thing she could do for her and the school.”
Michael Dougherty, a philosophy professor at Ohio Dominican University and author of two books on plagiarism, told CNN via email that the issue lies in the fact that readers of Gay’s text cannot discern whose voice is speaking from the text itself.
Interim president
Alan M. Garber, currently serving as provost and chief academic officer at Harvard, will assume the role of interim president until a new leader is appointed, as announced by the Harvard Corporation.
“We are fortunate to have someone of Alan’s broad and deep experience, incisive judgment, collaborative style, and extraordinary institutional knowledge to carry forward key priorities and to guide the university through this interim period,” said the Corporation.
The Harvard Corporation stated that the search for a new president would “begin in due course,” without specifying an exact timeline.
In her letter, Claudine Gay mentioned her intention to return to a faculty position, focusing on scholarship and teaching.
