Harvard University President Claudine Gay has resigned.
Top News Today :
Dr. Claudine Gay, who was the 1st Black person, the 1st Black female, and only the 2nd female president of the prestigious Ivy League Harvard University tendered her resignation on Tuesday. Ironically, her tenure, which began in July of 2023, only lasted 6 months and is the shortest in Harvard’s 387-year history.
Dr. Gay had been on the hot seat almost since becoming president. She was slammed for her position on the Israeli/Palestinian situation, after saying the University “embraces a commitment to free expression” and will not seek to sanction those who have criticized Israel.
“We can fan the flames of division and hatred that are roiling the world, or we can try to be a force for something different and better,” Gay said at the time. “That commitment extends even to views that many of us find objectionable, even outrageous. We do not punish or sanction people for expressing such views, but that is a far cry from endorsing them.”
She was also condemned over nearly 50 allegations of plagiarism from prior publications. Those condemnations came from a variety of sources, including Harvard students, who insisted that the president must be held to the same academic standards as they are.
“I stand by the integrity of my scholarship,” she said in a statement on Dec. 11th. “Throughout my career, I have worked to ensure my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards,” she added.
It was The Boston Globe that first broke the story:
“Harvard University president Claudine Gay, the daughter of Haitian immigrants who rose through the sharp-elbowed politics of higher education to become the first Black leader of the nation’s most prestigious university, has resigned. She stepped down after months of contending with interlocking crises over the Israel-Hamas war, campus antisemitism, and allegations of plagiarism in her scholarly works.”
For months, multiple detractors called for Dr. Claudine Gay to step aside. However, she resisted those calls — until Tuesday.
“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 said in a statement. “This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries. 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.”
Reactions were swift to her resignation.
“It was the right decision that should have happened sooner. It should not have taken this long. There was a clear lack of leadership. Her resignation was warranted,” Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said. “Jewish students are being verbally attacked.”
However, Harvard said it accepted the resignation “with sorrow.”
“While President Gay has acknowledged missteps and has taken responsibility for them, it is also true that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks,” the statement read. “While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her through disgraceful emails and phone calls. We condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms,” the Harvard Corporation said in a statement.
Did Claudia Gay commit professional suicide and bring this fall from grace upon herself? Or, was she ultimately railroaded by forces who never wanted a Black woman at the helm of Harvard in the first place?
OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
Harvard President, Dr. Claudia Gay resigns.
In my opinion there’s a lot of blame to go around.
Is she partly to blame for her own fall? Yes. Notwithstanding the allegations of plagiarism, frankly, her performance, if you will, and that of the other 2 presidents of prestigious Ivy League Schools (UPenn and,MIT) during that recent right-wing, anti-zionist witch-hunt hearing on Capitol Hill was pretty poor.
In each case, they should have been better prepared with their responses. But I digress.
The truth is, there are also racist “forces who never wanted a Black woman at the helm of Harvard, in the first place.”