Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns: Black Tech Figures React
Claudine Gay, Havard University’s first Black president, has resigned following allegations of plagiarism and criticism over her comments about antisemitism on campus.
Gay released a letter announcing her resignation, saying it was in the university’s best interests for her to go.
“It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor,” she said. “This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words.”
She said she had been subjected to personal threats and racial animus.
Anti-semitism comments
Gay faced mounting pressure to step down over recent weeks after serving as president for six months, the second-ever woman to hold the role.
Harvard was one of several universities in the US accused of failing to protect its Jewish students in light of the Israel-Hamas war.
During a tense congressional hearing last month, Dr Gay said calls for the killing of Jews were abhorrent.
She added, however, that it would depend on the context whether such comments would constitute a violation of Harvard’s code of conduct regarding bullying and harassment.
The comment prompted a backlash, for which Gay later apologized in an interview with the university’s student newspaper.
However, dozens of politicians and high-profile alums called on her to step down over the comments.
Plagiarism claims and Gay’s resignation
Following Gay’s comments, conservative activists raised allegations that Gay had plagiarized some of her academic work.
These allegations were reported by US media outlets and investigated by Harvard’s board, which found two published papers that required additional citations.
According to AP News, Gay had also updated her dissertation and requested corrections from journals.
More claims that Gay had failed to cite academic sources properly emerged and were published anonymously in a newspaper just hours before she finally resigned on Tuesday.
Following Gay’s resignation on Tuesday, the university’s 11-member governing body, the Harvard Corporation, released a statement addressing the racism Gay faced.
“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,” it read.
“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.”
Read: Congresswoman Barbara Lee Raises Alarm Over Disproportionate Layoffs Of Black Tech Workers In Letter
Black tech figures respond
Several notable tech figures took to X, formerly Twitter, to comment on Gay’s resignation.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a Black Jewish professor, wrote: “The attacks on Claudine Gay aren’t about Claudine Gay, and they aren’t about Harvard.”
“What we are facing is a coldly calculated and publicly announced campaign to eliminate Black thought from public discourse, and Gay was a valuable target in this endeavor because she represented to white supremacists the possibility of Black influence.”
Jonathan E. Collins, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Education, wrote, “This was nothing short of a witch hunt. Being unfairly targeted hurts, but nothing can ever change the fact that she made history.”
“Rage at what these racists did to Claudine Gay. Couldn’t even keep a Black woman as president for one year without harassing and stalking her out,” AI ethicist Timnit Gebru also commented on X.
“They have the most unbelievably horrific white men at the highest levels of leadership, but Black women? Of course not.”
