US elite university - Anti-Semitism and plagiarism allegations: Harvard President Claudine Gay resigns
In the face of massive criticism of her stance on anti-Semitism on campus, the president of the elite US university Harvard, Claudine Gay, has tendered her resignation. The decision follows allegations of plagiarism and fierce criticism of a hearing in the US Congress, at which Gay and two other university presidents defended themselves against accusations that they had not done enough to combat anti-Semitism on campus. As a result, the president of the University of Pennsylvania had already resigned.
"It is with a heavy heart, but out of deep love for Harvard" that she is resigning, Gay declared on Tuesday, shortly after the university newspaper "The Harvard Crimson" had reported on this impending step. In her letter of resignation, Gay explained that she had received personal threats and had become the target of "racist hostility". As the university newspaper "Harvard Crimson" further reported, an interim replacement has already been appointed.
Claudine Gay was the first African-American president at Harvard
In mid-December, Gay had averted a resignation after the Harvard Corporation, the university's governing body, backed her. Gay had previously been questioned about anti-Semitism at a congressional hearing. When asked whether students who call for the "genocide of Jews" on campus violate university rules of conduct, she replied: "It depends on the context."
In addition to this much-criticized statement, Gay was also confronted with accusations of plagiarism. The 53-year-old was accused of not quoting accurately in her publications. In July, Gay, who was born in New York to Haitian immigrants, was appointed the first African-American female president in the history of the world-famous university near Boston in the US state of Massachusetts.
War in the Middle East: protests at elite US universities
In recent weeks, there have been loud calls for her resignation, including from a group of more than 70 members of Congress. But patrons of the university and more than 700 faculty members have also sided with her.
Since the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the dispute over the conflict in the Middle East had also erupted at universities and schools in the USA. At the beginning of December, the Republican-led Education Committee in the US Congress summoned the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During the hearing, all three admitted to anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents at their universities.
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- Despite the support from the Harvard Corporation and over 700 faculty members, the pressure mounting from more than 70 members of the US Congress led to the resignation of Claudine Gay, the first African-American president of Harvard University.
- The accusation of plagiarism against Claudine Gay added to her woes, as it was reported that she did not correctly quote sources in her publications.
- Amidst the ongoing controversy, the University of Pennsylvania's president had already resigned due to similar allegations of not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism on campus.
- In a letter of resignation, Claudine Gay, out of love for Harvard, mentioned receiving personal threats and becoming the target of "racist hostility," which contributed to her decision.
Source: www.stern.de
