(ConservativeSense.com) – Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned following weeks of controversy. Gay initially refused to step down as she was immersed in an antisemitism scandal, followed by claims that she plagiarised several papers throughout her academic career. Ms. Gay was the university’s first black President, and in her resignation letter, she hinted that she was the victim of racism. It was “frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus,” she wrote. The embattled educator also rejected the notion that she failed to confront “hate” while leading the elite institution.
The public descent of Claudine Gay began following the terrorist attack against Israel on October 7 last year, and subsequent protests on Harvard campuses by demonstrators calling for further attacks on the Jewish state. Republican lawmakers objected to the protests and called on Gay, as well as the leaders of the Michigan Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania, to attend Congress and explain the evident antisemitism on their respective campuses.
Grilled by GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik on Capitol Hill, Gay refused to say whether calling for war against Jews constituted a breach of Harvard’s code of conduct. Video of the exchange went viral online and was viewed by more than a billion people. Gay’s appearance was roundly considered disastrous, and calls for her resignation soon followed.
Within days of her Congressional appearance, plagiarism allegations ensued, and “inadequate citations” were found in her past academic work. This included her 1997 dissertation, in which she reportedly copied an entire paragraph from another paper without citing the author.
Major donors quickly withdrew their support from the Ivy League school; some reports suggested it lost a billion dollars. More than 1,600 Harvard alumni said they would withhold further donations until Ms. Gay was removed from her post.
Gay was Harvard President for a mere six months, and press reports say she will now return to her previous role at Cambridge, where she will paid almost $900,000 annually.
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