By Darren Lyn
HOUSTON, United States (AA) - Harvard University President Claudine Gay on Tuesday stepped down from her position at the US Ivy League school after mounting scrutiny over accusations of plagiarism and antisemitism.
"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," said Gay in a statement. "This is not a decision I came to easily."
Gay became Harvard's first Black president last July, but her academic career came under fire last month after a congressional hearing on antisemitism at college campuses. During her testimony, Gay could not say unequivocally that calls for the genocide of Jews on Harvard's campus would violate the university's code of conduct, which launched a backlash of criticism accusing her of being antisemitic. She later apologized and admitted that she failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students.
Following the House of Representatives hearing, conservative activists also unearthed several instances of alleged plagiarism in her 1997 doctoral dissertation, which led to more calls for her resignation. At first, the school's governing board, the Harvard Corporation, backed Gay, but more instances of plagiarism in her paper fueled calls for her to step down, which she ultimately did just two days into 2024, setting a record for the shortest-lived presidency at Harvard, with only six months.
"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," said Gay.
The Harvard Corporation said the resignation came “with great sadness” and thanked Gay for her service.
Here is a timeline of Gay's tumultuous six-month tenure at Harvard.
July:
Gay, 55, is appointed as Harvard's first Black president and only the second woman to hold that position at the oldest university in the United States. She takes over from Lawrence Bacow after serving as Harvard's dean of the faculty of arts and sciences.
October:
Gay's first challenge comes after the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, which killed some 1,200 people.
In the wake of the attack, a letter signed by dozens of Harvard student organizations is released blaming Israel. Harvard comes under intense scrutiny for not forcefully condemning the letter and the attack itself, and it takes several days for Gay to respond to the criticism.
"While our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group – not even 30 student groups – speaks for Harvard University or its leadership," Gay says in a letter on Oct. 10.
However, the letter comes too little, too late, as the finger-pointing continues, accusing Gay and Harvard of being antisemitic.
November:
At the beginning of November, the Harvard Corporation begins an independent investigation on allegations of plagiarism in Gay's 1997 doctoral dissertation which surfaced at the end of October.
Attacks on the university continue regarding accusations of antisemitism on Harvard's campus after the US Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights announces an investigation at the end of November. The announcement of the probe comes just days before Gay is scheduled to testify to Congress about antisemitism on college campuses.
December:
Gay appears before a congressional panel along with the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the beginning of December for a hearing on campus antisemitism. None of the three outrightly condemn antisemitism on their respective campuses, under tough and some say manipulative questioning, deferring to the right to free speech, which had critics clamoring for their resignations.
The House of Representatives subsequently announces a congressional investigation into all three schools over their handling of antisemitism on campus as well as their disciplinary policies.
Gay later apologizes for her inaction during the congressional hearing in an interview with Harvard's student newspaper.
"What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community – threats to our Jewish students – have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged," says Gay.
The Harvard Corporation asserts their support for Gay multiple times during December amid scrutiny over plagiarism allegations and announces that Gay would update her dissertation to correct inadequate citations in her paper. However, that does not stop the US House of Representatives from announcing yet another investigation into Harvard over the plagiarism concerns and how the school would handle them if a faculty member or student had been accused.
January:
The scrutiny and pressure come to a boiling point, which leads Gay to announce that she is stepping down as Harvard's president just two days into the new year.
In her resignation letter, she says it had 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."
Though Gay is stepping down as president, she is reportedly returning to Harvard's faculty.
Gay is the second Ivy League president to resign in the wake of the congressional hearing. The University of Pennsylvania's president Liz Magill resigned on Dec. 9.
Gay will be replaced by Harvard's provost and chief academic officer Alan Garber, who will serve as interim president until the university finds a replacement.