Harvard University President Resigns

Claudine Gay became the shortest-serving president in Harvard University's history when she resigned on January 2, following plagiarism allegations.

In a letter announcing her decision, Ms. Gay said her resignation was in the best interests of Harvard. She stands by her academic record and remains a professor of African-American studies at the university.

Thus, Ms. Gay only held office for 6 months, the shortest among Harvard University presidents since its founding in 1636.

The interim chancellor position is held by Alan M. Garber, an economist and chief academic officer of Harvard University.

Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard's former president in 2006, said Gay made the right decision. "I admire Claudine Gay for putting the interests of Harvard first during this extremely difficult time," he said.

Ms. Claude Gay, during a hearing before the US Congress on December 5. Photo: Harvard Crimson

Gay’s move comes after she was hit with a series of plagiarism allegations in The Washington Free Beacon, which said it had received 39 accusations, covering seven research papers, including her doctoral dissertation.

Gay's 1997 doctoral dissertation, "Taking Power: Black Electoral Victory and the Redefinition of American Politics," quoted extensively from a 1996 work by Bradley Palmquist and Stephen Voss, but failed to cite or place the text in quotation marks. Gay has also been accused of plagiarism in dozens of previous papers for "insufficient citations."

According to experts, this violates Harvard's citation rules, which state that "taking any ideas or language from another person without clearly citing that source in your paper is considered plagiarism." Notably, this is a work that has been awarded by the school for its excellent quality.

Responding to the allegations, she maintained that she had always maintained academic integrity and had added citations.

Harvard's board of trustees acknowledged knowing about the allegations since October last year. They conducted an investigation and found "several instances of inadequate citations" in the two papers, which they said would be corrected. However, the violations did not amount to "research misconduct."

Along with cheating on exams, plagiarism is one of the two most common academic integrity violations at Harvard. Of the 138 academic integrity violations reported in the 2020-2021 academic year, 47 students plagiarized.

Dr. Claudine Gay took office as president last July. She is the 30th president and the first person of color to hold the position at Harvard.

Doan Hung (According to The Guardian)

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