Why Claudine Gay Resigned As Harvard’s President

Claudine Gay, Harvard University’s first Black president, has resigned. This decision follows the heavy backlash she faced for what was labeled an inadequate response to antisemitism on Harvard’s campus following the Hamas attacks on October 7. 

Beyond the backlash, Gay and other university presidents faced, the 30th Harvard president experienced more scrutiny for plagiarism allegations. An unsigned complaint was circulated against her on Monday in the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online journal that has led a campaign against Dr. Gay for the past few weeks.

The latest complaint added to about 40 other plagiarism accusations already circulated in the journal. The accusation raised questions about whether Harvard held its president to the same academic standards as its students.

Still, in a letter to the Harvard Community, Gay wrote, “It has become clear that it is in the best interest 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.”

Gay, who began her tenure as president in July 2023, will have the shortest presidency in the university’s history.

Who is Harvard’s First Black President, Claudine Gay?

On July 1st, 2023, Claudine Gay became the first Black person and the second woman to serve as Harvard’s president. She was named Harvard’s 30th president after serving as a dean for Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. 

She first came to the university in 2006 as a government professor, according to her biography on the school’s website. “Gay is a leading scholar of political behavior, considering issues of race and politics in America,” her biography reads. 

She earned a B.A. in economics from Stanford University, where she received the Anna Laura Myers Prize for best senior thesis in the department. Gay, 53, received her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1998, and her dissertation won the Toppan Prize for best dissertation in political science. 

What does Gay’s resignation mean? Different advocates have different answers

Claudine Gay’s resignation has sparked conflicting reactions from both the academic and political spectrum.

Lawrence H. Summers, the former U.S. treasury secretary who resigned as Harvard president under pressure in 2006, said that Dr. Gay had made the right decision. “I admire Claudine Gay for putting Harvard’s interests first at what I know must be an agonizingly difficult moment”.

Ron Halber, the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told USA TODAY after her resignation that university presidents have to understand that speech can create an environment where Jewish students feel “physically intimidated.”

“We wouldn’t accept it for any other group. Why should the Jewish community demand any less?” Halber said.

However, Rev. AI Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), in a statement seen by UrbanGeekz, said that President Gay’s resignation is about more than a person or a single incident. “This is an attack on every Black woman in this country who has put a crack in the glass ceiling. It’s an assault on the health, strength, and future of diversity, equity, and inclusion – at a time when Corporate America is trying to back out of billions of dollars in commitments.”

Harvard Campus Reactions

On Harvard’s campus, according to the New York Times, some expressed deep dismay with what they described as a politically motivated campaign against Dr. Gay and higher education more broadly. Indeed, hundreds of faculty members had previously signed public letters asking Harvard’s governing board to resist pressure to remove Dr. Gay.

“This is a terrible moment,” said Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of history, race, and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. “Republican congressional leaders have declared war on the independence of colleges and universities, just as Governor DeSantis has done in Florida. They will only be encouraged by Gay’s resignation.”

Some faculty members criticized how the secretive Harvard Corporation had handled the political onslaught and plagiarism allegations.

Alison Frank Johnson, a history professor, said she “couldn’t be more dismayed.”

“Instead of making a decision based on established scholarly principles, we had here a public hounding,” she said. “Instead of listening to voices of scholars in her field who could speak to the importance and originality of her research, we heard voices of derision and spite on social media. Instead of following established university procedure, we had a corporation granting access to self-appointed advisers and carrying out reviews using mysterious and undisclosed methods.”

In her first major comment since her official Harvard statement announcing her resignation, Gay admitted bluntly that “I made mistakes”. However, she also argued that her invitation to testify to Congress about antisemitism on elite college campuses had been “a well-laid trap” and that “the campaign against me was about more than one university and one leader”.

The playbook that had successfully been used against her would soon be mobilized against other institutional leaders, Gay warned. “For the opportunists driving cynicism about our institutions, no single victory or toppled leader exhausts their zeal,” she said.

Closing Thoughts

Claudine Gay will return to the Harvard faculty, where she has served as a professor of government since 2006. Meanwhile, Alan Garber, an economist, and physician, will serve as interim president until a new leader for Harvard is identified and takes office, according to Harvard Corporation, the University’s senior governing body.

Main Image: Inauguration of Claudine Gay as the 30th President of Harvard University on September 29, 2023