On Tuesday, Claudine Gay announced her resignation as president of Harvard University amid “tensions and divisions” surrounding allegations of plagiarism and fallout from last month’s heated exchange during her congressional testimony related to the war in Israel and Gaza. Here’s what happened.
Why did she resign?
According to her resignation letter, Gay, the university's first Black president and second woman to hold the position, said it was "in the best interests of Harvard" to step down to place the focus back on Harvard "rather than any individual" during what she called a "moment of extraordinary challenge." Harvard is among a number of schools being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education for allegations of Islamophobia and antisemitic discrimination on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
“It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor … and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus,” Gay added.
In a Tuesday statement, the Harvard Corporation — the top governing body of fellows at the institution — said they accepted her resignation with "sorrow."
“Her own message conveying her intention to step down eloquently underscores what those who have worked with her have long known — her commitment to the institution and its mission is deep and selfless,” the statement read. “It is with that overarching consideration in mind that we have accepted her resignation.”
Gay, whose six-month tenure is the shortest amount of time served by a president in Harvard’s history, is also facing mounting accusations of plagiarism stemming from published articles she wrote as a professor and student at the university.
What did she say at the Capitol Hill hearing last month?
On Dec. 5, 2023, Gay, along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth and the University of Pennsylvania's then-President Liz Magill testified before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
During a contentious line of questioning between Gay and New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, the congresswoman asked Gay, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules on bullying and harassment?”
“The rules around bullying and harassment are quite specific, and if the context in which that language is used amounts to bullying and harassment, then we take — we take action against it,” Gay responded.
When Stefanik continued to press Gay toward a definitive answer, Gay followed with this:
“Antisemitic speech when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation — that is actionable conduct and we do take action,” Gay said.
Her remarks swiftly drew criticism from Republicans, some Democrats and the White House. She apologized the next day.
“What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was 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,” Gay said in an interview with the Harvard Crimson.
What are the allegations of plagiarism?
In the wake of the congressional hearing, conservative activists dug up several of Gay's published works dating back to the 1990s.
As a graduate student at Harvard, Gay wrote "Between Black and White: The Complexity of Brazilian Race Relations," which was published in 1993 by Origins magazine. According to an analysis by CNN, she lifted one sentence from a source that was found in her "Suggestions for Further Reading" list.
The allegations also included that Gay copied lines verbatim without citation from a 1996 article on racial polarization in Louisiana while writing her 1997 doctoral dissertation, “Taking Charge: Black Electoral Success and the Redefinition of American Politics” for her PhD in political science.
CNN also says Gay failed to properly attribute language borrowed from a 2003 paper by economists in an article titled “Moving to Opportunity: The Political Effects of a Housing Mobility Experiment,” which she published in the journal Urban Affairs Review in 2012.
In response to the plagiarism allegations, Gay requested a review of her work by the Harvard Corporation, whose fellows concluded in a Dec. 12 statement that they found "a few instances of inadequate citation" but "no violation of Harvard's standards of research misconduct."
The statement went on to say that Gay requested four corrections that included the proper citations and quotation marks in two of the original articles and reinforced the Harvard Corporation’s position that they would “unanimously stand in support of President Gay.”
The governing body also announced that Gay would update her 1997 doctoral dissertation.
What's next?
According to Gay’s resignation letter, she will return to the university’s faculty, where she previously served as professor of government since 2006. Gay is also a professor of African American studies. In her letter, Gay pledged to “continue working alongside” Harvard to “build the community we all deserve.”
“These last weeks have helped make clear the work we need to do to build that future — to combat bias and hate in all its forms, to create a learning environment in which we respect each other’s dignity and treat one another with compassion, and to affirm our enduring commitment to open inquiry and free expression in the pursuit of truth,” Gay said in the statement.
The fellows of the Harvard Corporation added in their statement that they are “grateful for the extraordinary contributions she has made — and will continue to make — as a leader, a teacher, a scholar, a mentor, and an inspiration to many.”
