Former Harvard President Claudine Gay was on Christmas vacation with her family in Rome when she agreed to resign under pressure, according to a new report.
Gay, desperate for a breather after a barrage of criticism over plagiarism accusations and her tepid response to campus antisemitism, departed on the long-planned trip on December 22, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
On December 27, Penny Pritzker, the leader of Harvard University’s governing board, called her and asked whether she felt there was a way forward with her in the president’s chair, people familiar with the call told the Times.
Although the question was posed as open-ended, Pritzker’s implication was apparently clear, and the phone call ended with Gay’s agreement to step down.
It marked a stunning reversal after weeks of staunch public support for Gay from members of the Harvard Corporation, as the university’s governing board is known, in the face of unfolding scandals.
Former Harvard President Claudine Gay was on Christmas vacation with her family in Rome when she agreed to resign under pressure, according to a new report
On December 27, Penny Pritzker (above), the leader of Harvard University’s governing board, called Gay and asked whether she felt there was a way forward with her in the president’s chair
The board members, also on their own Christmas vacations, faced a fresh barrage of criticism and input from friends and family members they encountered over the break, possibly playing a role in their decision, according to the Times.
As well, several board members had children studying at Harvard, and at least one worried that their children would be harassed by other students over their parents’ board roles and controversy surrounding Gay.
The new report also reveals that in addition to their public statement declaring support for Gay on December 12, board members privately approached the president and asked her to help propose a turnaround plan.
Gay’s staff crafted a proposal they dubbed the ‘spring reset,’ which involved having her make a slew of campus appearances, hold office hours, and launch task forces to address both antisemitism and Islamophobia.
However, according to the Times, before Gay could send her plan to the board, fresh scandal emerged in the form of plagiarism allegations on December 19.
When Gay then sent the proposal along, some board members took it as a sign that she did not appreciate the severity of the new allegations, which eventually included 40 instances of plagiarism in Gay’s academic work.
Earlier this week, Gay spoke out in a New York Times op-ed saying that racial animus played a role in her ouster.
She revealed that she had received death threats and been called the n-word countless times since hitting the headlines in October.
A group known as ‘Fire Claudine Gay’ deployed a panel truck with an electronic billboard display outside of the Harvard Campus with a message protesting against Gay
Gay also cautioned that the campaign to remove her her was about more than one university and one leader.
‘This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society,’ Gay wrote. ‘Those who had relentlessly campaigned to oust me since the fall often trafficked in lies and ad hominem insults,’ she added.
But Gay did not use the word ‘plagiarism’ in her essay, only admitting that she’d misattributed quotes in her academic writings. Those allegations – which were ultimately leveled at half Gay’s published work – are what are believed to have cost her her job at Harvard.
And she even hailed the work in question, calling it ‘cutting edge’, while claiming that she herself had published work which had ‘spawned important research by other scholars.’
Gay wrote, ‘On Tuesday, I made the wrenching but necessary decision to resign as Harvard’s president. For weeks, both I and the institution to which I’ve devoted my professional life have been under attack.’
‘My character and intelligence have been impugned. My commitment to fighting antisemitism has been questioned. My inbox has been flooded with invective, including death threats. I’ve been called the N-word more times than I care to count.’
She added, ‘My hope is that by stepping down I will deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency in their campaign to undermine the ideals animating Harvard since its founding: excellence, openness, independence, truth.’