The president of Harvard University resigned on Tuesday, after increasing pressure on her in recent weeks due to anti-Semitic incidents on campus.
Claudine Gay has announced her resignation from the post of president of the leading university in the United States, which is equivalent to the position of rector, in a letter. Among other things, she wrote that she decided to resign after consulting with the members of Harvard’s governing body, keeping in mind the interests of the institution.
As she put it, the university is currently facing “extraordinary challenges”, and in these times one must focus entirely on the institution and not on individuals. The African-American university leader described what happened to her as a frightening and personal attack, which she said was fueled by racial malice.
Following the fighting between Israel and the radical Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Harvard University became the center of attention with the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and sometimes anti-Semitic demonstrations organized by its students. Israeli and Jewish students reported an intimidating atmosphere and objected that the university administration does not act decisively against hateful expressions.
In early December, the lower house committee of the federal legislature held a hearing on anti-Semitism experienced in higher education institutions, which was attended by the chancellors of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in addition to Harvard.
The event attracted a lot of public attention. In addition, it provoked serious criticism against the heads of the institutions, who, when asked whether the demands made at the demonstrations about the abolition of Israel conflict with the operating regulations of the universities, the rectors replied that it “depends on the context”.
Following the hearing, University of Pennsylvania Chancellor Liz McGill resigned, and similar demands were made against the other two university leaders. Claudine Gay, who has led Harvard since the summer of 2023, has been under pressure, and accusations of plagiarism have also arisen in connection with her academic work.
Following the protests and the indecisive reaction of the university management, Harvard’s major donors announced that they would withdraw their operating support from the institution, which meant a total loss of hundreds of millions of dollars for the institution operating in the state of Massachusetts, and many Republican congressmen also demanded the rector’s departure.
Claudine Gay, professor of political science at the university, announced that she will return to academic work and continue teaching activities after her resignation.
(Debreceni Nap)
