The first black president of Harvard University has resigned
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Harvard University President Claudine Gay has resigned. She was the first black scientist elected to this position, but spent less than six months in it. Before her resignation, Gay was heavily criticized for bullying Jewish students and was accused of plagiarism.
Harvard regularly ranks high in the rankings of the world’s most prestigious universities. However, in 2023, the university found itself at the center of a scandal after the attack on Israel by the terrorist movement Hamas, recognized in the United States.
Then a number of American universities were accused of encouraging students who support Hamas and make anti-Semitic statements. Harvard was among the 14 colleges in respect of which the US Department of Education launched an investigation into discrimination against students, mainly Israelis.
At the congressional hearings, Hay avoided a direct answer to the question of whether calling for the genocide of the Jews was a violation of university rules. More than 70 congressmen signed an open letter demanding the dismissal of Gay and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sally Kornbluth, but they also avoided a direct answer.
After that, examples of incorrect citation were found in the scientific works of Gay, who received a doctorate in public administration in 1998, and a number of researchers considered them to be plagiarism.
In December, the university’s governing fellows, known as the Harvard Corporation, expressed unanimous support for Gay. Letters in her defense were signed by hundreds of teachers and graduates.
In a letter published on Harvard’s website on January 2, Hay said that she made the decision to resign after consulting with members of the corporation.
“It has become clear that in the interests of Harvard, I must resign so that our community can survive these extraordinary trials, focusing on the institute, and not on an individual person,” she said in her letter.
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