(The Hill) – Harvard University President Claudine Gay has resigned from her position after multiple controversies clouded her short-lived administration.
The Harvard Crimson, the school’s newspaper, reported that Gay resigned on Tuesday afternoon, only six months after she was hired. Her presidency was the shortest in the school’s history.
The Hill has reached out to Harvard for comment.
Gay had faced two major controversies in a matter of weeks: one about the school’s response to growing antisemitism and another more personal matter regarding accusations of plagiarism.
The first came after Gay participated in a House hearing on campus antisemitism where she was asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) if calls for the genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment at Harvard.
Gay, along with the heads of two other elite universities, said it would depend on the context, refusing at the time to give a cut-and-dry response.
Free speech experts said their answers were legally correct, but the hearing made international headlines, and calls began for the college presidents’ resignations.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill lost her job over the House testimony, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth remains at her post.
The Harvard Corporation stuck by Gay, and she stayed in her position until this week.
But then the plagiarism allegations arose, and while the corporation initially said they reviewed the allegations and did not think they warranted termination, more accusations came to light.
“TWO DOWN,” tweeted Stefanik, who had also celebrated Magill’s ouster. She added that Harvard “knows that this long overdue forced resignation of the antisemitic plagiarist president is just the beginning of what will be the greatest scandal of any college or university in history.”
