Claudine Gay blames ‘personal attacks’ and ‘racial animus’ in Harvard resignation letter by Breccan F. Thies
Claudine Gay, the embattled now-former president of Harvard University, blamed “personal attacks” and “racial animus” in her resignation letter to the university community.
Gay resigned her position Tuesday after facing mounting accusations of plagiarism, but in her resignation letter, she turned the focus to race in a move critics highlighted as an example of her commitment to controversial diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology.
“It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus,” Gay, whose tenure atop the university is now the shortest in Harvard history, wrote in her letter.
Gay, who saw a last-ditch effort from former President Barack Obama to save her job, added that the future of Harvard will require a commitment to “combat bias and hate in all its forms” and to “create a learning environment in which we respect each other’s dignity and treat one another with compassion.”
“When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity — and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education,” she concluded.
Calls for Gay’s resignation have been growing as more allegations of plagiarism in her past published works have surfaced. The latest plagiarism claims emerged Monday in a report from the Washington Free Beacon, bringing the total number of allegations close to 50.
Gay was also one of several university presidents accused of allowing antisemitism on campus following their recent congressional testimonies, during which Gay and others refused to specify whether calls for genocide against Jews would violate their universities’ codes of conduct.
“Rather than take responsibility for minimizing antisemitism, committing serial plagiarism, intimidating the free press, and damaging the institution, she calls her critics racist,” Christopher Rufo, board member of the New College of Florida and Manhattan Institute senior fellow, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “This is the poison of DEI ideology. Glad she’s gone.”
Some left-leaning observers had a different reaction.
Marc Lamont Hill, a commentator, activist, and City University of New York professor, demanded that the next president of Harvard be a black female.
“The next president of Harvard University MUST be a Black woman,” he wrote.
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