Harvard president resigns after row over anti-Semitism

New York, United States – AFP

The president of Harvard University resigned Tuesday after coming under ferocious attack for her handling of anti-Semitism during protests over Gaza.

Claudine Gay was engulfed by scandal after she declined to say unequivocally whether calling for genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s code of conduct, during testimony to Congress alongside the heads of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania last month.

Gay, who made history as the first Black person to be president of the powerhouse university, said in her resignation letter that she’d been subjected to personal threats and “racial animus.”

Her downfall comes after the university’s governing Harvard Corporation had initially backed her after the public relations disaster of the congressional testimony.

But the body did criticize the university’s initial response to the Hamas October 7 attacks.

– ‘Dismal conduct’ –

More than 70 lawmakers, including two Democrats, called for her resignation, while a number of high-profile Harvard alumni and donors also called for her departure.

Still, more than 700 Harvard faculty members had signed a letter supporting Gay and her job had appeared to be safe.

The resignation, first reported by the student-run newspaper the Harvard Crimson, was confirmed shortly after by Gay herself.

“It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president,” Gay said in a statement.

Former student and multi-million-dollar donor Bill Ackman claimed in a letter to Harvard’s governing boards that “President Gay’s failures have led to billions of dollars of cancelled, paused, and withdrawn donations to the university.”

Gay, 53, was born in New York to Haitian immigrants and is a professor of political science who in July became the first Black president of 368-year-old Harvard.

“Leadership failure and denial of anti-Semitism have a price. Hope glorious Harvard University learns from this dismal conduct,” wrote new Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz in response to the reports of Gay’s imminent departure.