Harvard president resigns after controversy over anti-Semitism on campus and accusations of plagiarism

The rector of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, presented her resignation this Tuesday, just six months after taking office, after a harsh controversy surrounding anti-Semitism on this campus and that of other elite American study centers, and after accusations of plagiarism arose in his academic works. Her tenure as the first black president of this institution has been the shortest in the history of this university.

“Following consultations with members of the Corporation (Harvard's highest governing body), it has become clear that it is in Harvard's best interests for me to resign, so that our community can manage these times of extraordinary challenge by focusing in the institution, and not in a particular individual,” the rector indicated in an email to students and academic staff.

In her message, Gay denounces having been the victim of personal attacks and racist threats after her appearance at a Congressional hearing on December 5, after which she was accused of not having spoken out harshly enough against the alleged anti-Semitism that emerged in the campus in the wake of the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7 and the bloody Israeli offensive in Gaza in response to that coup. “It has been painful to have my commitment to both anti-hate and to upholding academic rigor – two basic values ​​fundamental to the person I am – questioned, and frightening to have been subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by an intention racial”.

Resigning “was not a decision that I took lightly,” he assured. “My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it especially painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have dominated our community in recent months, and weakened the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be sources of strength and support in moments of crisis.”

His term has been the shortest in the history of the institution. Gay had taken office last July. The daughter of a family of Haitian immigrants, she managed to make her way in the exclusive world of elite universities and become the first black president of Harvard, one of the most renowned educational centers in the world. Until then a professor of Political Science at Stanford, her appointment was hailed as a milestone against racism and inequality.

Despite the brevity, his mandate has been surrounded by controversy. A controversy that is fully linked to the cultural wars in the United States between Republicans and Democrats, and that reached its peak during the appearance of Gay and the rectors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania, in a hearing in the US Congress to discuss anti-Semitism on American campuses, on December 5. Then, Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik – a former Harvard student, whom this university had expelled from an advisory committee for her support of Donald Trump's false claims about electoral fraud in the 2020 elections – demanded that the three rectors to rule on whether they would punish students who called for genocide against the Jews.

The three avoided answering with a blunt “yes” or “no” and tried to express that the reaction would depend on the context. An attitude that earned them accusations of behaving in an elusive manner and calls for their resignation. The White House itself criticized the academics' responses. “It is incredible that it has to be said: the calls for genocide are monstrous and contrary to everything we represent as a country,” said its deputy spokesman, Andrew Bates. The chancellor of the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Maguill, submitted her resignation a few days later.

The Harvard Corporation had, however, declared its unanimous support for Gay after “extensive deliberations” after the disastrous congressional hearing. The three rectors had argued that their response had tried to balance the condemnation of anti-Semitism with the defense of freedom of expression.

After that appearance, the House Education Committee, under Republican control, announced an investigation into anti-Semitism at Harvard. Almost immediately he revealed that he had expanded the investigation to also examine complaints about Gay's alleged plagiarism in four of his academic works over a quarter of a century, including his doctoral thesis.

The commission had requested a series of documentation from the university, although it had extended the deadline to receive it given that the study center is in full vacation. The Harvard Corporation had admitted that Gay's works contained “duplicative language without proper attribution” and the chancellor had incorporated seven suspicions into her writings.

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