CV NEWS FEED // Embattled Harvard University President Claudine Gay announced her resignation Tuesday following a tumultuous six-month tenure plagued by plagiarism allegations and a widely panned response to campus anti-Semitism.
“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 stated in her resignation letter addressed to “Members of the Harvard Community.”
“This is not a decision I came to easily,” she wrote:
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.
Later in her letter, Gay appeared to accuse her numerous critics from across the political spectrum of racism:
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.
“I trust we will all find ways, in this time of intense challenge and controversy, to recommit ourselves to the excellence, the openness, and the independence that are crucial to what our university stands for — and to our capacity to serve the world,” the disgraced ex-president concluded in her letter.
>> ‘BOMBSHELL REPORT: GAY PLAGIARIZED PHD PAPER <<
Christopher Rufo, an anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) advocate who played a large role in exposing the plagiarism allegations against Gay, reacted to the news of her resignation on X (formerly Twitter).
“To all of my critics who snidely dismissed me as a ‘bad-faith actor’ and a ‘cartoon villain’: I was right. You were wrong. Gay is gone,” he wrote:
The world of politics cannot be divided neatly between “good actors” and “bad actors.” Reality is not a Marvel movie; politics is not a child’s fable. There are only actors—fighters in the arena—some of whom are successful and some of whom are not.
My strategies, however unorthodox, have proven successful at exposing corruption, changing public opinion, and moving institutions. My critics, nursing sanctimonious feelings from a safe distance outside the arena, have no such record.
Minutes later, Rufo posted a screenshot of the first two-and-a-half paragraphs of Gay’s resignation letter, underlining the sentence in which she suggested her critics were motivated by “racial animus.”
“Rather than take responsibility for minimizing antisemitism, committing serial plagiarism, intimidating the free press, and damaging the institution, she calls her critics racist,” Rufo wrote. “This is the poison of [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)] ideology. Glad she’s gone.”
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Gay “had been under pressure for weeks regarding her initial responses to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.”
“Her remarks at a House committee hearing on the matter in early December drew widespread criticism after she gave an equivocal response to a question about whether calls for the genocide of Jewish people violated the campus code of conduct,” WSJ continued.
The newspaper added that she also “was accused of plagiarizing other academics in dozens of instances in several published academic papers and her Ph.D. dissertation.”
However, despite widespread calls for Gay’s resignation that seemed to transcend political lines, the Fellows of Harvard College unanimously threw their weight behind her.
“We today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University,” the institution’s premier governing board stated two days after news of the plagiarism allegations first broke.
“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 Fellows claimed in the December 12 statement.
>> HARVARD BOARD ‘UNANIMOUSLY’ STANDS WITH GAY <<
In late December, the House Education and the Workforce Committee announced they were investigating Harvard over their then-president’s alleged plagiarism.
Earlier that month, the House passed a resolution calling for Gay to resign over her anti-Semitism comments. Per The Harvard Crimson, the now-moot directive had the support of “virtually all” Republicans as well as just over 40% of Democrats.
The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY. Notably, Stefanik grilled Gay and two other university presidents during the December 5 Education and the Workforce Committee hearing.
“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment?” the congresswoman then asked.
To this, Gay replied: “If the context in which that language is used amounts to bullying and harassment, then we take, we take action against it.”
>> SCHOLAR WHO GAY ALLEGEDLY PLAGIARIZED SPEAKS OUT <<
“The resignation of Harvard’s antisemitic plagiarist president is long overdue,” Stefanik wrote on X following Gay’s announcement.
“Claudine Gay’s morally bankrupt answers to my questions made history as the most viewed Congressional testimony in the history of the U.S. Congress,” Stefanik continued:
Her answers were absolutely pathetic and devoid of the moral leadership and academic integrity required of the President of [Harvard].
This is just the beginning of what will be the greatest scandal of any college or university in history.
Our robust Congressional investigation will continue to move forward to expose the rot in our most “prestigious” higher education institutions and deliver accountability to the American people.
Following Gay’s resignation, Harvard Provost and Chief Academic Officer Alan M. Garber began serving as the university’s interim president.
