Claudine Gay, PhD, has resigned as president of Harvard University amid allegations of antisemitism at the institution and plagiarism in her scholarly work.
In her resignation letter published Jan. 2, Dr. Gay wrote: "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."
Dr. Gay's brief tenure spanned six months and one day, according to a timeline published by The New York Times. She made history as the first Black person and second woman to helm the Cambridge, Mass.-based university, and will remain onboard as a faculty member.
The Harvard Corporation's own letter, also published Jan. 2, announced that Alan Garber, MD, PhD, will become interim president of the Cambridge, Mass.-based university. Dr. Garber has served as Harvard's provost and chief academic officer for the past 12 years; an economist and a physician, he also holds appointments with Harvard Medical School, Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The Corporation wrote that it accepted Dr. Gay's resignation letter "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 Corporation's letter said. "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 news comes after months of controversy involving both Dr. Gay and Harvard University. One day after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, a coalition of more than 30 student groups published a letter stating that they hold "the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." Dr. Gay and the university were criticized by donors and alumni for not condemning Hamas or the students' letter, and released a series of increasingly forceful statements rejecting hate at Harvard and abroad.
Dr. Gay testified alongside the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at a Dec. 5 congressional hearing assembled to address issues of bias against Jewish students. Dr. Gay did not provide a clear answer when asked if calls for genocide violated Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment.
The University of Pennsylvania's president, Liz Magill, resigned one week after the hearing; she was also replaced by a physician, Penn Medicine executive J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD.
Dr. Gay's personal work has also been called into question. On Oct. 24, The New York Post brought anonymous allegations of plagiarism in Dr. Gay's papers to the university. The Harvard Corporation appointed an independent panel to conduct a review of her papers on Nov. 2. The review concluded Dec. 12, finding two papers needing additional citations, but no research misconduct; however, a petition calling for her removal had already garnered hundreds of signatures. Eight days later, the university came forward with two more instances requiring additional citations, and stated that Dr. Gay would update the dissertation in question.
"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," Dr. Gay wrote in her resignation letter.
She continued: "I believe in the people of Harvard because I see in you the possibility and the promise of a better future. These last weeks have helped make clear the work we need to do to build that future — to combat bias and hate in all its forms, to create a learning environment in which we respect each other's dignity and treat one another with compassion, and to affirm our enduring commitment to open inquiry and free expression in the pursuit of truth."