Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigns amid controversies

Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, announced her resignation in a letter published in the Harvard Crimson on Tuesday, Jan. 2. Since her testimony in a congressional hearing about the handling of anti-Semitism on college campuses on Dec. 5, 2023, her term has been surrounded by controversies of plagiarism in her academic career.

After serving as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 2018, Gay was announced to be Harvard’s 30th president on Dec. 15, 2022, and her tenure began the following July. A Harvard PhD recipient, Gay has served as an associate professor of social sciences at Stanford and later professor of government at Harvard. “She is someone eager to integrate and elevate Harvard’s efforts — throughout the arts and sciences and across the professions — to address complex challenges in the wider world,” said Penny Pritzker, chair of the presidential search committee.

On Dec. 5, 2023, Gay and the presidents of MIT and UPenn testified in front of the House Education Committee on their response to rising anti-Semitism on their campuses, especially amidst the Israel-Hamas war. Harvard had previously been placed on an investigation list by the Department of Education for rising complaints of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, leading to calls for government action. “I have sought to confront hate while preserving free expression. This is difficult work, and I know that I have not always gotten it right,” said Gay in her opening statement.

On Dec. 10, 2023, a post on the digital newsletter app Substack, entitled Is Claudine Gay a Plagiarist? detailed various accusations of plagiarism in her dissertation from her 1997 Harvard doctorate in political science. It also references plagiarism-based resignations of the presidents of the University of South Carolina and Hobart and William Smith’s College in 2021 and 2018 respectively. The post reads, “Gay’s case should be treated with equal seriousness. If she has violated the code of academic conduct, she must resign—or get voted off by the board.”

Though similar accusations have been made prior, they increased in number and publicity after the December congressional hearing. On Jan. 1, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Research Integrity Office received an anonymous follow-up complaint adding eight examples to a previous list of 39 instances of plagiarism and lack of correct citations, first submitted on Dec. 19, 2023. 

Eight of Gay’s published works were implicated in accusations from various reports, including her 1997 dissertation and five of her eleven articles. 

After receiving reports of plagiarism from several sources, the Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of Harvard’s two governing boards, addressed Gay’s presidency in a statement on Dec. 12, 2023. The Corporation announced their support following the congressional hearing, saying that “President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.” They also addressed the plagiarism accusations that they became aware of in late October and the independent review that “revealed a few instances of inadequate citation,” but failed to find violations of Harvard’s research code. 

In response to these findings, Gay requested to modify three of her archived works to add in citations and quotation marks. Repeated examples of plagiarism include the use of verbatim text without use of quotation marks, failure to indicate when specific sources were used, copied footnotes, and inclusion of references in “Suggestions for Further Reading” instead of in the form of citations. In addition to her published works, Gay submitted corrections to her dissertation after the Harvard review found various cases of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution.” 

On Jan. 2, Claudine Gay published her resignation letter in the Harvard Crimson. The letter shared her decision to step down, the challenges she had faced in recent months, and her hopes for the university. “As I now return to the faculty, and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do, I pledge to continue working alongside you to build the community we all deserve,” wrote Gay. Alan Garber, provost and Harvard class of ‘76, will assume the role of interim president.

Written by Samantha Cutler of Richard Montgomery High School

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons