In a twist that could only have come from the hallowed halls of Ivy League drama, Dr. Claudine Gay has stepped down as president of Harvard University, ending what may be the shortest tenure outside of a student who accidentally registered for Organic Chemistry. Her resignation, which comes after mounting pressure over allegations of plagiarism and her widely criticized testimony before Congress on antisemitism, marks the end of a six-month presidency that was historic in every sense, including the rather unfortunate ones.
Gay made history last year as the university’s first Black president and only the second woman in the role, though history, as it often does at Harvard, took an unexpected turn when repeated allegations surfaced claiming that parts of her academic work were not exactly fully footnoted with the usual scholarly rigor. To be fair, the accusations came with varying levels of severity, ranging from what some labeled minor citation errors to what others preferred to call more wholesale intellectual tourism.
The final straw, however, seemed to be a December congressional hearing where Gay and other elite university leaders tiptoed through a minefield of questions about antisemitism on campus and managed to upset pretty much everyone, albeit in impressively equal measure. When asked whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate Harvard’s student code of conduct, Gay responded with a legally nuanced but emotionally tone-deaf answer that might best be described as a masterclass in how not to answer simple questions with yes or no.
Amid the public outcry, high-level donors began to resemble an endangered species, and conservative critics launched what can generously be described as a sustained campaign. Billionaire investor and Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman, never known for his ability to sit quietly during a crisis, led public demands for Gay’s removal, arguing that plagiarism was incompatible with a job where credibility and scholarship are, at least officially, the main product.
Gay, in her resignation letter, insisted that her decision was less about giving in to critics and more about not allowing the university to be consumed in a political firestorm. She noted that while she was committed to addressing the issues of antisemitism and intellectual integrity, the surrounding noise had become too great a distraction for anyone to hear themselves think, let alone run a university.
Former president Lawrence Bacow will temporarily swap retirement for relevancy once again, serving as interim head of the university while Harvard searches, presumably with a flashlight and a thesaurus, for a new leader unburdened by both footnote foot faults and congressional hearing gaffes.
Harvard’s lesson of the semester: citation style may be MLA, but the pressure is always APA — All Presidents Accountable.