Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns—Seemingly Over Plagiarism, Not Jewish Genocide Hearing

Harvard president Dr. Claudine Gay announced on Tuesday that she will resign from her post at the university. “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,” she wrote in a letter to the community. One of three university presidents who came under fire last month for not unequivocally saying “yes” when asked at a congressional hearing whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated school rules or codes of conduct, Gay seems to have had her hand forced over new allegations of plagiarism.

Following the blowback from her comments at the hearing on Capitol Hill, where she appeared alongside the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT, who gave similar answers,* Gay received the public backing of Harvard’s governing board, whose members said, “In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay.” (Before that, Gay apologized during an interview with The Harvard Crimson.) In the statement, the board noted that it was aware of claims of plagiarism against Gay and that a review had concluded she had not violated the school’s standards for “research misconduct”; it added that “a few instances of inadequate citation” had emerged, for which Gay would request four corrections.

But over the ensuing weeks, more allegations of plagiarism emerged, as did findings by the university. Per The New York Times:

>The latest accusations against Dr. Gay were circulated through an unsigned complaint published Monday in The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online journal that has led a campaign against Dr. Gay over the past few weeks. The new complaint added additional accusations of plagiarism to about 40 that had already been circulated in the same way, apparently by the same accuser.

In her letter, Gay did not use the word plagiarism or specifically mention the hearing on Capitol Hill. But she referenced both, writing: “My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis. Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”

As The New York Times previously noted, Harvard faculty members and academics elsewhere responded to the initial accusations with “varying assessments of the severity of the infractions, with some seeing a disturbing pattern, and others calling them minor or dismissing them as a partisan hit job.” Carol Swain, a former Vanderbilt University professor whose work was used by Gay with no citation, said she was “livid” about the matter. Steven Levitsky, a government professor at Harvard who organized a faculty petition in support of Gay, said the alleged plagiarism appeared to be nothing more than “mild sloppiness.” “She’s a quantitative scholar,” he told the Times. “She cares about the data. These guys don’t spend time fussing about their literature reviews.” Charles Fried, a Harvard Law School professor, blamed the far right, saying, “It’s part of this extreme right-wing attack on elite institutions. The obvious point is to make it look as if there is this ‘woke’ double standard at elite institutions. If it came from some other quarter, I might be granting it some credence. But not from these people.”

*Penn president Liz Magill resigned four days after the hearing.