Harvard President, Claudine Gay, has stepped down amid allegations of plagiarism and criticism over her comments about antisemitism at the university.
BBC reported that Gay had faced mounting pressure to step down in recent weeks.
In a letter to the Harvard community, she said: “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.
“After consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.”
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Gay served in the role for six months and was the first black person, and only the second woman, to be appointed to lead the Ivy League university.
Acknowledged how short her tenure was, she said: “When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity — and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education.”
Last month, during a tense congressional hearing, Dr Gay said calls for the killing of Jews were abhorrent.
However, she added that it would depend on the context whether such comments would constitute a violation of Harvard’s code of conduct regarding bullying and harassment.
This prompted a widespread backlash and she later apologized in an interview with the university’s student newspaper.
US media outlets had since then unearthed several instances of alleged plagiarism in her academic record.
Last month, Harvard’s board investigated the allegations and found two published papers that required additional citation.
However, the board said that she did not violate “standards for research misconduct”.
In a statement CBS News quoted the Harvard Corporation as acknowledging that, “These past several months have seen Harvard and higher education face a series of sustained and unprecedented challenges.”
The university leaders said they accepted her resignation “with sorrow.”
“While President Gay has acknowledged missteps and has taken responsibility for them, it is also true that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks.
“While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her through disgraceful emails and phone calls. We condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms,” the statement said.
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