In the United States, the president of Harvard resigns… Claudine Gay has been in an ejection seat since her hearing a few weeks ago in Congress about the fight against anti-Semitism on campus. She becomes the second president of Harvard university to resign in the context of the war in Gaza.
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With our correspondent in Washington, Loubna Anaki
It will have held less than a month after its very controversial appearance before a congressional committee.
On December 5, Claudine Gay was asked the following question: “ Does a call for the genocide of the Jews constitute a violation of university regulations? » and replied “ it depends on the context “. His response from a purely legal point of view was no less clumsy.
Faced with the controversy, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, who was also interviewed and who also gave a similar response, had resigned.
Claudine Gay apologized and received the support of the Harvard council. But donors to the prestigious university as well as many conservative politicians continued to call for his departure.
Added to all this were accusations of plagiarism linked to his academic work, relayed by a right-wing site.
“ It is in the best interests of Harvard that I resign », Wrote Claudine Gay yesterday in her resignation letter.
Her presidency, the first of a black woman, was the shortest in the history of the university: barely six months.
Read alsoUnited States: Congressional hearing of three university presidents on anti-Semitism causes controversy