Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, who resigned Tuesday, testifies before the House Education and the Workforce Committee at the Rayburn Building in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on December 5. Photo by Will Oliver/EPA-EFE
Jan. 2 (UPI) — Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid accusations of plagiarism and a backlash over her response to anti-Semitism on campus.
Alan M. Garber, the university provost, will serve as interim president during the search for a replacement for Gay, who served the shortest presidency in the university’s history, The Harvard Crimson reported. Gay’s tenure began in July.
“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,” Gay wrote in her resignation letter Tuesday.
Gay said she is resigning to allow the Harvard community to navigate the controversy “with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.”
“My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis,” she wrote.
“Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”
Gay’s resignation follows a complaint reported Monday by the Washington Free Beacon detailing six new accusations of plagiarism in Gay’s scholarly work, bringing the total to nearly 50. Gay will resume her faculty position at Harvard.
Rumors of plagiarism came to a head when activist Christopher Rufo published a report Dec. 10 scrutinizing Gay’s doctoral dissertation for “problematic patterns of usage and citation.”
Further controversy grew from criticism by some that the university failed to forcefully condemn the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.
Gay faced investigations by the Harvard Corp. and the U.S. House of Representatives after her Dec. 5 testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee related to antisemitism on campus.
She faced backlash for appearing to evade questions about antisemitism and whether students would be disciplined for calling for the genocide of Jews.
A statement from Harvard’s governing board thanked Gay for her commitment and thanked Garber for stepping into the role on an interim basis.
“While President Gay has acknowledged missteps and has taken responsibility for them, it is also true that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks,” the statement said.
“While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her through disgraceful emails and phone calls. We condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms.”
Republicans welcomed Gay’s resignation, with Rep. Elise Stefanik, who questioned Gay during the Dec. 5 hearing, calling it “long overdue.”
“Our robust congressional investigation will continue to move forward to expose the rot in our most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions and deliver accountability to the American people,” Stefanik said in a statement.
Some faculty members expressed support for Gay.
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of history, race and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, called the resignation “a terrible moment.”
“Republican Congressional leaders have declared war on the independence of colleges and universities, just as Governor DeSantis has done in Florida. They will only be emboldened by Gay’s resignation,” Muhammad said, according to The New York Times.
Gay’s resignation follows that of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill. More than 1,600 Harvard alumni, including billionaire mega-donor Len Blavatnik, said they would withhold donations until the university takes action against anti-Semitism.