“It is with a heavy heart and deep love for Harvard that I am writing to inform you that I will be resigning,” Gay said in a statement posted on social media.
Claudine Gay is stepping down as Harvard president
In December 2023, Claudine Gay appeared before the US Congress to provide an explanation for the university's lack of response to what some students called anti-Semitic statements. Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Gay was asked whether a hypothetical call for genocide against the Jewish people would qualify as a violation of Harvard's code of conduct. An excerpt from his response: “Maybe so, depending on the context” caused a media and political uproar.
Some alumni and donors then demanded that Gay be removed from university structures. On the other hand, he received support from other academics, including many professors, who signed a petition opposing calls for his removal and who saw attacks on his presidency as a threat to free speech.
Allegations of plagiarism
The second problematic issue was allegations of improper citation of sources in his scientific work.
In justifying the decision to resign, Gay announced that it was made, among other things: in connection with the huge wave of attacks on his person – as he claims – and on racial grounds. “It is troubling that my commitment to resisting hate and protecting scientific rigor has been called into question,” she wrote in her statement.
Gay served only six months, making it the shortest term in Harvard's 388-year history. The 55-year-old was the first black woman to hold the position. He was temporarily replaced by Alan Garber.
Harsh comments
“What we're seeing here is an example of the ultimate corruption of our most elite institutions,” former US Department of Education Secretary William Bennett said in an interview with Fox News. – Can Harvard rebuild itself? Yes. will it grow No. These problems are too entrenched, he said.
Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, wrote on X: “To paraphrase Churchill, Harvard originally had a choice between scandal and shame. It chose shame, and now it will have scandal.”
Both Bennett and Hanson said Gay was hired with “diversity, equity and inclusion” in mind, which has “replaced meritocracy in education and other areas of society” in modern America, according to Fox News.
“He was hired by affirmative action,” Hanson said in commenting on the case last week. “We have lost the tradition that everyone in America, regardless of class, race or ideology, is judged by their performance in the marketplace of ideas,” he wrote, referring to the doctrine of vocalism prevalent in the US.
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