Harvard University President Claudine Gay, Photo: Harvard University
Harvard University President Claudine Gay announced her resignation on Jan. 2, with her departure coming just six months into her presidency. In her letter to the Harvard community, Gay expressed her deep love for the university but stated that it was in the best interests of Harvard for her to step down. Her decision was reached after consultations with members of the Harvard Corporation, the university’s governing body, who shared their support for her resignation. While Gay did not specify a formal departure date, she described the decision as “difficult beyond words,” CNN reported.
Gay’s tenure as Harvard’s president has been marred by controversy, drawing attention from CEOs, billionaires, donors, and congressional leaders. The controversies ranged from allegations of plagiarism to her handling of campus antisemitism issues.
One of the critical factors contributing to Gay’s resignation was an ongoing plagiarism scandal. Several instances of missing quotation marks and citations in her work came under scrutiny, leading Harvard to announce her intent to submit corrections to her 1997 PhD dissertation and scholarly articles from the 2000s. While the university called these corrections “regrettable,” they did not meet the threshold for research misconduct.
However, the tipping point was a disastrous congressional hearing last month, during which Gay and other university presidents failed to explicitly address antisemitism on campus.
Also, in recent weeks, Harvard has found itself at the center of a heated debate involving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, presidential appointments, and the response to antisemitism on college campuses. This controversy has been fueled by billionaire hedge fund manager and Harvard graduate Bill Ackman, who accused Gay of being a product of DEI policies and called for her resignation, along with the presidents of two other prestigious universities.
Gay, who will remain at the university as a faculty, will probably continue to earn nearly $900,000, The New York Post reported.
Prior to being named president, Gay earned $879,079 as a Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean in 2021 and $824,068 in 2020, according to records published by the university.
Alan M. Garber, provost and chief academic officer at the university, is now serving as interim president during the transition.
Gay acknowledged the short length of her tenure, writing: “When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope 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,”
Harvard University President Claudine Gay, Photo: Harvard University
