Harvard President Claudine Gay stepped down on Tuesday after calls for her resignation had gained momentum last month. She had been scrutinized over allegations of plagiarism and for her response concerning antisemitism on campus.
“It has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so the community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than the individual,” she wrote in a statement.
Gay became the first Black president in Harvard history when she stepped into the role over six months ago. Her resignation makes it the shortest tenure for a president in the university’s history.
Some Harvard professors, as well as civil rights leaders, have pointed to Gay’s resignation due to pressure from outside sources.
“I am saddened for Harvard and higher education. This is Harvard being attacked by mob rule and something we should be wary of,” Harvard Government Professor Ryan Enos told CBS News.
Gay was accused of plagiarism in a 1997 dissertation, which led the school board to review the work.
“A lot of us were concerned about these accusations of plagiarism, as we should be, but we didn’t even get a chance to deliberate that,” Enos added. “Instead, she was brought down by a mob.”
Gay received the support of Harvard’s governing board, alums and faculty before her resignation. In her letter, she mentioned being “subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”
Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton agrees. She told Politico that Gay’s resignation is “an assault on the health, strength and future of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
“President Gay’s resignation is about more than a person or a single incident,” Sharpton said. “This is an attack on every Black woman in this country who’s put a crack in the glass ceiling.”
Sharpton also highlighted the role of Bill Ackman’s open letter against Gay in her resignation. The Harvard alum and billionaire hedge fund manager had suggested she was hired because of her race instead of her leadership or credentials.
President of Morehouse College, David Thomas, took a stance supporting Gay.
“Mr. Ackman and others are right to call attention to issues of antisemitism at his alma mater, where he attended as a Jewish student,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “To turn the question to the legitimacy of President Gay’s selection because she is a black woman is a dog whistle we have heard before: black and female, equal, not qualified. We must call it out.”
