Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.
Quick Read
- Claudine Gay, the first Black president of Harvard University, resigned following plagiarism accusations and criticism over her congressional testimony.
- Gay’s academic work came under scrutiny after conservative activists found alleged plagiarism in her 1997 doctoral dissertation. Harvard’s governing board initially supported her, finding “a few instances of inadequate citation” but no research misconduct.
- The Harvard Corporation later discovered two more examples of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution” in Gay’s work. They stated she would update her dissertation and request corrections.
- The resignation was announced in a letter to the Harvard community and was described as “with great sadness” by the Harvard Corporation.
- Alan M. Garber, Harvard’s provost and chief academic officer, will serve as interim president.
- Gay, along with the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, faced criticism for their responses during a House Committee hearing on Education and the Workforce. The hearing focused on universities’ protection of Jewish students amid rising antisemitism and the Israel-Gaza conflict.
- Gay’s response to a question about whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate Harvard’s conduct policy was seen as inadequate. She later apologized for not clearly denouncing threats of violence against Jewish students.
- Rabbi David Wolpe resigned from a new committee on antisemitism created by Gay, expressing dissatisfaction with her response and the campus atmosphere.
- The House committee announced an investigation into the policies and disciplinary procedures at Harvard, MIT, and Penn. Additionally, federal civil rights investigations were opened at these universities in response to complaints submitted to the U.S. Education Department.
The Associated Press has the story;
Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns amid backlash from antisemitism testimony
Newslooks- CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP)
Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.
Gay is the second Ivy League president to resign in the past month following the congressional testimony. Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, announced her departure just months into her tenure in a letter to the Harvard community.
Following the congressional hearing, Gay’s academic career came under intense scrutiny by conservative activists who unearthed several instances of alleged plagiarism in her 1997 doctoral dissertation. Harvard’s governing board initially rallied behind Gay, saying a review of her scholarly work turned up “a few instances of inadequate citation” but no evidence of research misconduct.
Days later, the Harvard Corporation revealed that it found two additional examples of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution.” The board said Gay would update her dissertation and request corrections.
The Harvard Corporation said the resignation came “with great sadness” and thanked Gay for her “deep and unwavering commitment to Harvard and to the pursuit of academic excellence.”
Alan M. Garber, provost and chief academic officer, will serve as interim president until Harvard finds a replacement, the board said in a statement. Garber, an economist and physician, has served as provost for 12 years.
Gay and the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania came under fire last month for their lawyerly answers to a line of questioning from New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate the colleges’ code of conduct.
The three presidents had been called before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce to answer accusations that universities were failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide and fallout from Israel’s intensifying war in Gaza, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll.
Gay said it depended on the context, adding that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies.” The answer faced swift backlash from Republican and some Democratic lawmakers as well as the White House. The hearing was parodied in the opening skit on “Saturday Night Live.”
Gay later apologized, telling The Crimson student newspaper that she got caught up in a heated exchange at the House committee hearing and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students.
“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.
The episode marred Gay’s tenure at Harvard — she became president in July — and sowed discord at the Ivy League campus. Rabbi David Wolpe later resigned from a new committee on antisemitism created by Gay, saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that “events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped.”
The House committee announced days after the hearing that it would investigate the policies and disciplinary procedures at Harvard, MIT and Penn. Separate federal civil rights investigations were previously opened at Harvard, Penn and several other universities in response to complaints submitted to the U.S. Education Department.
