Harvard University
HipHopWired Featured Video
Harvard University President Claudine Gay has stepped down from her post after a string of controversial moments while in the position damaged her standing. Now with new allegations of plagiarism materializing, Claudine Gay has decided to hand in her resignation as Harvard officials handle the fallout.
As seen in The Boston Globe, Claudine Gay, the famed institution’s first Black president, resigned via letter on Tuesday (January 2). This comes after Gay came under fire for comments on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and allegations of plagiarism of her scholarly works. Gay, who just served six months as president, stands as the shortest in the history of the university.
Gay wrote in her resignation letter 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.”
In Gay’s place, Harvard University provost Dr. Alan Garber will serve as interim president.
The issues Harvard faced with Gay at the helm date back to October 2023 and she never recovered since then. After making the comments on the war, Gay was called to the carpet for not addressing reported antisemitism across the Harvard campus.
Claudine Gay will return to the faculty level and continue to teach students according to her statement.
—
Photo: Kevin Dietsch / Getty
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Kevin Dietsch / Getty
The board at Harvard University affirmed that its first Black president, Claudine Gay, will be staying on after calls for her to resign
On Tuesday (December 12), members of the Harvard Corporation announced that they had decided that Dr. Claudine Gay would be staying on as president of Harvard University. There was a concerted effort calling for her to resign in the wake of her answers last week as she appeared before a congressional hearing over rising antisemitism.
Dr. Gay had appeared before a congressional hearing called by the House Committee on Education last Tuesday (December 5) along with two other university presidents – Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York pressed Dr. Gay with hypothetical questions. “At Harvard,” Ms. Stefanik asked, “does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or no?” Dr. Gay answered, “It can be, depending on the context”. After another similar answer, numerous alumni called for Gay to resign as Magill did after her appearance on Capitol Hill.
“As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University,” said a statement signed by each member of the board with the exception of Dr. Gay. “Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.” The statement did go on to acknowledge that Dr. Gay had erred a few times in response to the conflict in Gaza sparked by the Hamas militant organization’s terror attack on October 7. Acknowledging that she had been caught up by her exchange with Stefanik, Dr. Gay did say in the Harvard Crimson that she should’ve planned to “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.”
Dr. Gay did have a slew of supporters, particularly from Black faculty members at the university who deemed the attacks by Stefanik as “specious and politically motivated.” They along with hundreds of alumni petitioned that she “should be given the chance to fulfill her term to demonstrate her vision for Harvard.”
-
Pages