The president of the prestigious American university Harvard, Claudine Gay, announced her resignation on Tuesday after allegations of plagiarism and a tense congressional hearing on the fight against anti-Semitism on campus.
“It is with a heavy heart, but with deep love for Harvard, that I write to inform you that I will be stepping down as president,” Claudine Gay said in a resignation letter released Tuesday.
The 53-year-old political science professor, who became Harvard University's first black president in July, has been under fire in recent weeks.
She was targeted by accusations of plagiarism related to her university work, fueled by a conservative quarter, and by criticism related to her answers during a parliamentary hearing on combating anti-Semitism on campus to elected official Republican Elise Stefanik, who compared the Calls by some students for the “Intifada,” inciting “a genocide of Jews in Israel and around the world.”
“It was complicated to see doubts hovering over my commitment to confront hate and respect academic rigor… and it was frightening to be the subject of personal attacks and threats fueled by racism,” she said in her letter.
She is the second president of the Ivy League – which brings together eight very prestigious universities – to step down. In December, Elizabeth Magill, the president of UPenn (Philadelphia), who was also criticized for her comments during the same hearing, resigned.
More than 70 lawmakers, including two Democrats, as well as former students and prominent donors had called for Ms. Gay's resignation. However, the president received the support of the education community and remained in office in mid-December.
His presidency was the shortest in the history of the university, which was founded in 1636.