Harvard president quits: The controversial term of Claudine Gay

On 15 December 2022, Ivy League college Harvard made history when it announced the appointment of Claudine Gay as its president. With this, she became the first person of colour and second woman in Harvard University’s 386-year history to serve as president.

However, on Tuesday (2 January), she made history once again, however, not in the best way possible. Her tenure will be remembered for being the shortest in the school’s history, as she announced her resignation .

While she has stepped down from her role as president, she will continue to hold her faculty position at the reputed institution.

Gay’s short tenure as Harvard president was far from smooth-sailing; she was mired in multiple controversies and scandals.

Claudine Gay’s resigns with a ‘heavy heart’

On Tuesday, the Harvard president resigned, which was first reported by The Harvard Crimson. In a lengthy letter, the 52-year-old wrote, “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.

“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 consultation with members of the Corporation, 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.”

She further added in the letter that she was “distressed” that doubts had been cast on her commitments to confront hate and to “uphold scholarly rigour”. She also stated that she was frightened to be subjected to personal attacks and “threats fuelled by racial animus”.

Harvard, in response, thanked Gay for her service and praised her commitment to Harvard and its people. It was also announced that Provost Alan M Garber would serve as interim president effective immediately.

Gay’s antisemtism controversy

Claudine Gay’s resignation comes after months of controversy about her handling of pro-Palestinian protest on campus in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attack in Israel .

A day following those deadly attacks, more than 30 student groups published an open letter, holding the “Israeli regime entirely responsible for the unfolding violence. The letter received a lot of backlash from people in the US as well as from other countries.

Gay also came under fire for not denouncing the Hamas attack or the letter published in its aftermath. It was after receiving flak that Gay issued a statement expressing heartbreak over the death and destruction from the war while calling for “an environment of dialogue and empathy.”

In the following days, Gay once again issued another statement, this time a bit more forceful. She said that “no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”

As tensions simmered on campus , Claudine Gay, along with the presidents of MIT and University of Pennsylvania, were summoned to US Congress on 5 December to testify on the allegation that there was a bias against Jewish students. It was during this hearing that Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York asked Gay: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or No.”

Gay responded by saying , “It can be, depending on the context.” She added: “Antisemitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct, and we do take action.”

However, many decried her response and asked if she condoned such actions.

Claudine Gay’s plagiarism row

But it wasn’t just the antisemitism controversy that Gay found herself embroiled in. On 10 December as she faced criticism for her handling of the hate speeches being made on campus, plagiarism allegations were levelled against her by conservative activist Christopher Rufo. He alleged that she had plagiarised her 1997 doctoral dissertation.

The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, then published a complaint that alleged nearly 40 instances of plagiarism by Gay. This was followed by Harvard commissioning an independent review of Gay’s writings following the plagiarism accusations. It then announced that the review revealed inadequate citations in a few instances but “no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct.”

In the meantime, the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce also extended its existing probe, focused on antisemitism on campus, to include the allegations of plagiarism against Gay.

The committee announced it had “begun a review of Harvard University’s handling of credible allegations of plagiarism by President Claudine Gay over a period of 24 years”.

The scandal worsened for Gay on 1 January when new allegations of plagiarism were levelled against her. In the new complaint published on The Washington Free Beacon, six more instances of plagiarism were listed out. Experts speaking to CNN found that there were elements of Gay’s 2001 article, The Effect of Minority Districts and Minority Representation on Political Participation in California, that constituted plagiarism.

Several sentences from scholar David T Canon’s 1999 book appear in Gay’s article. But Gay failed to use quotation marks or cite the work in two passages. His end notes are almost verbatim in her footnotes.

But Gay has been steadfastly defending her work. Earlier she had said in a statement, “I stand by the integrity of my scholarship. Throughout my career, I have worked to ensure my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards.”

Reactions to Gay’s resignation

Soon after Gay’s resignation as Harvard president, some expressed shock, while others maintained that the action was long overdue.

Vivek Ramaswamy , a contender for the 2024 US presidential polls, wrote: “Harvard’s President Claudine Gay just resigned… better late than never. Back in 2006, I was one of three students appointed to the advisory board to select Harvard’s new president in 2007 after Larry Summers was forced to resign after his supposedly “misogynistic” comments (which were badly distorted). Back then, it was a foreordained conclusion that the next president would be a woman, no questions asked - shut up, sit down, do as you’re told. And it was a thinly veiled exercise in race & gender when they selected Claudine Gay. Here’s a radical idea for the future: select leadership based on *merit.* It’s a great approach, actually.”

Elise Stefanik, the Republican representative, who had grilled Gay during the hearing, said Gay’s actions were long overdue.

My full statement on the long overdue resignation of @Harvard president: pic.twitter.com/ZnCnh5AF2f

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) January 2, 2024

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman — who has donated millions to Harvard, his alma mater — has been one of Gay’s most vocal critics, and previously suggested Gay was hired based on the colour of her skin. He wrote on X, “Et tu Sally?” apparently directed at Sally Kornbluth, MIT president, who is the last of the three college presidents to keep her job.

With inputs from agencies