Harvard President Resigns Amid Plagiarism and Anti-Semitism Allegations

Harvard University President Claudine Gay has resigned due to allegations of plagiarism and anti-Semitism found in her doctoral dissertation, according to the Associated Press.

The agency reports that "conservative activists" began accusing Ms. Gay of anti-Semitism after she failed to clearly state during Congressional hearings that calls for the genocide of Jews on campus violate Harvard's code of conduct.

The allegations of anti-Semitism drew public attention to the university president's 1997 doctoral thesis, which critics believe contained plagiarism. Later, Harvard's governing board announced that several instances of "improper citations" were found in the dissertation, although no serious violations were identified. A few days later, the governing body disclosed that there are also two additional examples of "repetitive phrasing without attribution" in the thesis. The board stated that Ms. Gay will update her thesis.

Claudine Gay is the first Black president in Harvard's history, assuming the role in July 2023. She is a political scientist and economist by training, having studied economics at Stanford University, and political science and management theory at Harvard.