After just six months as president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay has stepped down following allegations of plagiarism and a backlash over what was described as an inadequate response to campus anti-Semitism.
Gay was the university’s first Black president and only the second woman to take the role in its 388-year history. Her tenure is the shortest in the history of the university. In her resignation letter, she cited personal attacks “fuelled by racial animus” and stated that she wished to act in the “best interests” of the Harvard community and to enable it to navigate current tensions sparked by the Israel-Gaza war.
