Tipsheet

The Future of Harvard's President Has Been Decided

Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich  |  December 12, 2023 9:45 AM

Harvard President Claudine Gay will keep her job after disastrous and discriminatory testimony to Congress last week. 

"As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing," members of the Harvard Corporation wrote in a letter Tuesday. "So many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, and the University’s initial statement should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation. Calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values. President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the University’s fight against antisemitism."

"In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay. At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated. Harvard’s mission is advancing knowledge, research, and discovery that will help address deep societal issues and promote constructive discourse, and we are confident that President Gay will lead Harvard forward toward accomplishing this vital work," the letter continues. 

Gay also won't be punished for rampant plagiarism found by reporters and is asking for corrections. 

"With regard to President Gay’s academic writings, the University became aware in late October of allegations regarding three articles. At President Gay’s request, the Fellows promptly initiated an independent review by distinguished political scientists and conducted a review of her published work. On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation. While the analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications," the letter states. 

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On Saturday Penn President Liz Magill resigned from her position but will remain a professor at the law school. Magill gave the same testimony next to Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth.