Harvard says Claudine Gay's exit invoked 'great sadness,' touted her ‘commitment to academic excellence'
Harvard officials on Tuesday released a statement sharing "great sadness" about embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay stepping down from the post after facing controversy.
"With great sadness, we write in light of President Claudine Gay’s message announcing her intention to step down from the presidency and resume her faculty position at Harvard," the Harvard Corporation’s statement reads.
Gay announced today her resignation as president of the Ivy League institution after facing several plagiarism accusations. This came after it was recently reported that more instances of plagiarism mired Gay’s work, totaling the amount to nearly 50.
HARVARD STUDENTS PEN EDITORIAL CALLING ON PRESIDENT GAY TO RESIGN, STATING SHE HAS 'FAILED'
Despite mounting pressure for Gay to resign over plagiarism allegations over several weeks, the high governing body of Harvard stood by the embattled president.
The Harvard Corporation on December 12 issued a resolution deciding to keep Gay in the post amid the plagiarism allegations, the Harvard Crimson reported.
The resolution came after more than 700 faculty members as well as the Harvard Alumni Association Executive Committee signed a letter urging the Harvard Corporation to resist calls for Gay's resignation, according to Harvard Crimson.
Additionally, Harvard Corporation, alumni, and faculty backed the president following intense blowback from a congressional hearing about the rise in antisemitism on Harvard's campus.
But, after the controversy over her remarks under congressional questioning and plagiarism accusations, the Harvard Corporation admitted that they found additional "instances of inadequate citation" in her academic writings after an independent review.
However, they went on to say, that their "analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct" and decided not to fire the embattled president.
In the statement about Gay’s resignation, they noted that "she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks."
Furthermore, the Harvard Corporation "thanked" Gay for her leadership and achievements.
"Throughout her long and distinguished leadership as Dean of Social Science then as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences – where she skillfully led the FAS through the COVID-19 pandemic and pursued ambitious new academic initiatives in areas such as quantum science and inequality – she demonstrated the insight, decisiveness, and empathy that are her hallmark," the Harvard Corporation wrote.
They added that Gay was resilient amid "racist vitriol" that occurred during the backlash against the plagiarism allegations and her handling of antisemitism on campus.
"We do so with sorrow. While President Gay has acknowledged missteps and has taken responsibility for them, it is also true that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks," they said. "While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her through disgraceful emails and phone calls. We condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms."
The Harvard Corporation is the smaller and more powerful of the university's two governing boards. It consists of the president of the university and 11 fellows.