Claudine Gay Resigns as Harvard President

Facts

• Harvard President Claudine Gay — the first Black leader of the school — on Tuesday resigned her position in the face of allegations that she plagiarized several academic writings, and weeks after her controversial testimony in front of the US Congress about campus antisemitism.¹
• Gay, who denied plagiarizing any works, said in a statement that she was distressed over her 'commitments to confronting hate and upholding scholarly rigor' being challenged by critics.¹
• In a statement, the Harvard Corporation said it accepted Gay’s resignation with 'great sadness.' It thanked her for her service and commended her 'remarkable resilience in the face' of sustained personal attacks.²
• US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) — who as a member of the committee that questioned Gay elicited a response that made headlines about the consequences of antisemitic rhetoric on campus — took credit for Gay’s departure. In a press statement, she wrote, 'I will always deliver results.'³
• Gay had told the Congressional committee that the use of certain terms about harming Jews and Israel was abhorrent but added that it had to be put into 'context' to determine whether the university could punish students who uttered such words.⁴
• Alan M. Garber, an economist and physician, has been named Harvard's interim president during a search for a full-time replacement for Gay. Garber has been Harvard's provost and a professor of economics, public policy, and healthcare policy for more than 12 years.⁵

Sources: ¹PBS NewsHour, ²FOX News, ³Independent, ⁴Daily Wire and ⁵Business Insider.

Narratives

• Right narrative, as provided by PJ Media. It's about time that Gay, a serial plagiarizer who made deeply concerning remarks about antisemitism, was held accountable. Her feckless response to the hate running rampant on her campus since October should've gotten her canned long ago. But this is what we've come to expect from the leftist institutions of indoctrination that pass themselves off as institutions of higher learning. More must be done to clean abhorrent ideologies out of America's university administrations.
• Left narrative, as provided by Mother Jones. The right's bad faith crusade against diversity in education and its attempt to undermine, and eventually remove, every Black leader who’s elevated to a higher position has taken another victim. Harvard has set a bad example by caving and allowing Gay to step down, but there’s still an opportunity to fight back against these attacks, and in turn, continue the fight to integrate people from marginalized communities into the power structure of these institutions.