The president of the prestigious Harvard University, Claudine Gay, has submitted her resignation, amid criticism for her comments considered ambiguous on issues linked to anti-Semitism on campus and accusations of plagiarism, according to the university newspaper.
“Harvard President Claudine Gay will resign Tuesday afternoon, ending the shortest presidency in the university’s history, according to a person with knowledge of the decision,” the Harvard Crimson reported before the university made no comment. Gay herself did, however, through a letter in which she pointed out that “it has been distressing that my commitments to confront hatred and defend academic rigor have been called into question.”
Claudine Gay has held the position for six months, becoming the first black person, and only the second woman, to be appointed to head the university.
During a tense congressional hearing last month, Gay said calls to kill Jews were abhorrent. However, he added that it would depend on the context whether such comments would constitute a violation of Harvard’s code of conduct on bullying and harassment.
There have been no shortage of additions to the controversy. Thus, an unsigned complaint published Monday in The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online magazine that has led a campaign against Claudine Gay in recent weeks. The new complaint added accusations of plagiarism in academic works that join 40 others that had already circulated in the same way and apparently by the same accuser, notes The New York Times.
Harvard’s board investigated the allegations last month and found two published articles that required review but noted that Gay did not violate standards of conduct in his research.
The December congressional hearing also led to the dismissal of Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, whose support had already been hit in recent months by her refusal to cancel a Palestinian writers’ conference. She resigned as president four days later.
