Claudine Gay resigns the presidency of Harvard University amid plagiarism allegations

Claudine Gay announced her resignation in an email addressed to the Harvard community.

"This is not a decision I came to easily," Gay wrote. "Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries."

Gay wrote that she consulted with Harvard's governing boards after it became clear that her resignation would be "in the best interests of Harvard."

"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," Gay wrote. "I trust we will all find ways, in this time of intense challenge and controversy, to recommit ourselves to the excellence, the openness, and the independence that are crucial to what our university stands for—and to our capacity to serve the world."

Harvard recently announced President Claudine Gay plans to submit corrections to her 1997 PhD dissertation to correct instances of “inadequate citation.” Those corrections would be on top of ones Gay issued earlier to a pair of scholarly articles she wrote in the 2000s.

Harvard has described Gay’s corrections as “regrettable,” but officials found that the matter does not meet the threshold of research misconduct, something that would be a punishable offense.

Experts CNN interviewed stressed that plagiarism can be very complex and they were divided on what the punishment for Gay should be – or if there even should be one. None of those experts argued Gay should be outright fired and they noted that it’s rare for academics to be fired or students to be expelled for plagiarism.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Republican chair of the House Education and Workforce Committe, wrote a letter on December 20 to Penny Pritzker, the senior fellow of the powerful Harvard Corporation, the university’s top governing board, demanding information on Harvard’s response to “credible allegations of plagiarism” by Harvard President Claudine Gay over a 24-year period.

Foxx’s letter requested a “written response” by December 29 to produce a series of documents such as “all documents and communications concerning the initial allegations of plagiarism and the ‘independent review’” of Gay’s scholarship, including “all meeting minutes, transcripts, notes, coordinating communications, memoranda or other materials.”

Harvard has also been asked to provide documents related to the university’s “public response to media inquiries” about the plagiarism allegations as well as “any and all communications” between Harvard and its regional accreditor regarding its performance on academic honesty.

Foxx asked Harvard to provide a list of “any disciplinary actions” since January 2019 taken against Harvard faculty or students for research misconduct and other academic integrity violations, including inadequate citation.

Embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay said Tuesday she is stepping down from her post.

Gay’s term as president of the prestigious university lasted just over six months. She was undone in part by her responses at a congressional hearing last month, as well as an ongoing plagiarism scandal.

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