Harvard’s first black president, Claudine Gay, resigns

Claudine Gay, the first Black woman and the second woman to lead Harvard University, has resigned from her role after facing intense scrutiny over a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism as well as widening allegations of plagiarism in her academic work.

She spent less than a year in the role.

Gay sent her resignation letter on Tuesday afternoon, January 2,  to the Harvard community, explaining that her decision to step down came after consulting with the university’s governing board and she will remain on faculty.

“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 said in a letter to the Harvard community.

“This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries.”

But after consulting with the university’s board, Gay added, “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.”

Gay’s six-month tenure is the shortest in the university’s 388-year history, according to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper. She was the first Black person and the second woman to lead the institution.

In December, Gay came under fire for her responses to questioning from U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik during a congressional hearing about antisemitism on college campuses.

Shortly afterwards, critics raised questions about whether she had plagiarized portions of her published academic work in the 1990s and 2000s.

Harvard’s governing body said it had initiated an independent review of Gay’s works and found some inadequate citation — but did not go so far as to say she had plagiarized material. Gay submitted corrections to her dissertation and two research articles.

Allegations of plagiarism arose again when Harvard said it had found two more examples of inadequate citation in Gay’s 1997 doctoral dissertation. Officials said the problem involved “duplicative language without appropriate attribution.”

Gay addressed those difficulties in her resignation, saying it has been painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have roiled her brief tenure as president in recent months.

“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,” she wrote in her letter to the Harvard community.