The first black President of Harvard University resigned Tuesday, the prestigious US school’s student newspaper reported, after she faced criticism over allegations of plagiarism and her handling of anti-Semitism on campus.
Claudine Gay was criticized in recent months after reports surfaced alleging that she did not properly cite scholarly sources in her academic work. Her time was the shortest presidency in the University’s history.
The most recent accusations came Tuesday, published anonymously in a conservative online outlet.
Gay was also engulfed by scandal after she declined to say unequivocally whether calling for genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s code of conduct, during testimony to Congress alongside the heads of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania last month.
The university’s governing Harvard Corporation backed her after her appearance before Congress, but did criticize her response to the October 7 attack in Israel as the campus community reacted to the war in Gaza.
More than 70 lawmakers including two Democrats called for her resignation, while a number of high-profile Harvard alumni and donors had called for her departure.
Still, more than 700 Harvard faculty members had signed a letter supporting Gay.
The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gay, 53, was born in New York to Haitian immigrants and is a professor of political science who in July became the first Black president of 368-year-old Harvard University, in Cambridge, outside Boston.
AFP
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