American university
Anti-Semitism allegations: Harvard president resigns
The now former university presidents Claudine Gay (Harvard, l) and Liz Magill (Pennsylvania, r.) during a hearing in December before the Education Committee of the US House of Representatives in Washington. photo
© Mark Schiefelbein/AP
She is resigning from her position. After Claudine Gay’s testimony at a hearing in December about anti-Semitic incidents at her university, the criticism continued. There were also accusations of plagiarism.
After only around six months in office, the president of the US elite university Harvard, Claudine Gay, back. The decision follows allegations of plagiarism and strong criticism of a hearing in the US Congress in which Gay and two other university presidents defended themselves against accusations that they had not done enough to combat anti-Semitism on campus. As a result, the president of the University of Pennsylvania had already resigned from her position.
“It is with a heavy heart, but out of deep love for Harvard, that I announce that I will be stepping down as president,” US media quoted Gay in a letter to the university community. The decision was not easy for her, but it was in the “best interests of Harvard.” As the university newspaper “Harvard Crimson” reported, an interim representative has already been appointed.
Testimony at the hearing caused great outrage
Since the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, the dispute over the conflict in the Middle East has also broken out at universities and schools in the USA. At the beginning of December, the Republican-led Education Committee in the US Congress summoned the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
During the hearing, all three admitted anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents at their universities. One scene in particular caused great outrage: When asked whether the “call for genocide against the Jews” at her universities violated guidelines on bullying and harassment, Gay did not answer “yes” or “no”, but said: ” That may be the case, depending on the context.”