When Claudine Gay began on July 1 as president of Harvard University, the day was historic, as the daughter of Haitian immigrants was the first black president of the 386-year-old institution. There had been only one female headmaster before, Faust by Drew Gilp.
Just half a year later, Gay ended up resigning after accusations of condoning anti-Semitism and plagiarizing parts of his dissertation. The rector’s term is the shortest in the university’s history.
Gay’s fate was partially due to a characteristic from which the university magazine praised him at the time of his selection: a solid commitment to freedom of expression and respecting different views as the lifeblood of the university community.
Gay refused to punish students who, after the Gaza war broke out, protested against Israel. Critics thought the protests were anti-Jewish and made Jewish students afraid.
The final straw was when Gay’s scientific integrity was questioned. He is alleged to have copied, among other things, the text of another researcher in his doctoral thesis approved in 1998 without mentioning the source.
The war in Gaza is stirring on campuses
U.S. university campuses have been in turmoil since the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and Israel responded by launching an unrelenting crackdown on the Palestinian territory of Gaza with the goal of destroying Hamas.
The students have demonstrated for both the Palestinians and Israel. The tense atmosphere has spawned several complaints about anti-Semitism and anti-Islam. Several universities have refused student organizations supporting the Palestinians.
Some contemporaries of the Vietnam War even see similarities in the university unrest with the anti-war protests of the time, writes The New York Times magazine.
The US Department of Education has launched numerous theses against research on how they have reacted to the student turmoil. One of these is Harvard University, led by Gay. The studies are based on the law, which prohibits discrimination in organizations receiving funding from the ministry.
At Harvard, the center of the uproar has been the statement of about 30 student organizations, where they argued, that Israel is fully responsible for the rising violence. Several Jewish students say the statement caused them fear and accused the organizations of supporting the terrorist organization Hamas. The organizations denied supporting Hamas, says, among others, the ABC news channel.
Gay issued a statement, in which he strongly condemned the Hamas terrorist attack, but rejected calls to punish the students who signed the statement. He emphasized freedom of speech, even though the university does not support the statement.
This led to Gay being brought before a congressional committee by two other presidents, the University of Pennsylvania By Liz Magill and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Sally Kornbluth alongside. They were tested on how they have reacted to anti-Semitism on their campuses.
Gay’s responses only fueled calls for resignation
During the six-hour hearing, Gay continued to defend freedom of speech. However, what turned into a disaster for him was the moment when a Republican member of the House of Representatives Elise Stefanik asked Gay hypothetically if calling for the genocide of Jews is harassment and harassment under Harvard’s rules.
Gay replied: It could be, depending on the context.
Gay later apologized for the comment student newspaper in an interview with the Harvard Crimson. In his message on X, formerly Twitter, he emphasized the university’s condemnation of calling for genocide or violence against Jews or any other group.
However, the damage had already been done. According to critics, the congressional hearing raised doubts about the inability of Harvard University under Gay’s leadership to protect Jewish students, the Harvard Crimson reports.
University of Pennsylvania Chancellor Liz Magill resigned four days after the hearing, after he had been criticized for an evasive answer to the genocide question. Gay persisted for almost another month With the support of other Harvard leadership.
Accusations of plagiarism the final straw
Around the same time, the conservative newspapers The New York Post and The Washington Free Bacon published claims that Gay had quoted other people’s texts in his scientific texts without mentioning the sources.
The university has investigated the accusations and considers that the quotes are not what could be considered scientific misconduct, says, among others, the news channel CNN. The House of Representatives of Congress has launched his own investigation into how the university has reacted to the allegations.
Republicans rejoice
Many Republicans have expressed their satisfaction with Gay’s resignation, writes The New York Times. Conservatives have been happy about the separation, among other things, as a defeat for the idea of diversity, equality and inclusion.
Gay’s defenders, on the other hand, warn that his resignation will encourage conservatives to interfere in the affairs of universities.
Elise Stefanik, who questioned Gay at the congressional hearing, promises that Republican congressmen will continue to “expose the rot” at the most prestigious universities.
Claudine Gay, a social scientist specializing in the study of political behavior goes back to the way it was for his teaching job at Harvard University.