Claudine Gay received support from faculty and students during her last tumultuous weeks as president.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Claudine Gay will resign from her role as president of Harvard University, according to reports.Gay drew criticism for an answer to a question about Jewish genocide during a Congressional hearing.Calls for her resignation grew stronger after plagiarism accusations gained public attention.
Claudine Gay will resign as president of Harvard after less than a year, according to reports from The Boston Globe and The Crimson on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The news comes after weeks of scandal throughout December — including a controversial Congressional testimony and plagiarism accusations.
Calls for Gay’s resignation began after she and the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania waffled over a question during a December 5 Congressional hearing.
The school presidents were asked if calling for a Jewish genocide would violate each college’s code of conduct.
Their respective answers sparked outrage amongst some major figures and eventually led to the resignation of Penn president Elizabeth Magill.
“It can be, depending on the context,” Gay answered.
Harvard alum and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman was especially critical of Gay’s remarks at the hearing. He called for all three presidents to “resign in grace.” After an apology and receiving some public support, Harvard published a statement saying that Gay would remain as president.
But as the Ivy League school handled one PR nightmare, past plagiarism accusations against Gay came to light. Harvard Corporation and faculty members backed Gay once again and said she hadn’t violated school policy, though she would be issuing some corrections to some of her past academic work.
Gay succeeded Lawrence Bacow in July 2023 to become the 30th president of Harvard University.