A timeline of Claudine Gay as president of Harvard
Claudine Gay has only been president of Harvard University since July, but she has faced criticism on two fronts: her response to rising tensions on campus over the war between Israel and Gaza, and questions about possible plagiarism in her academic work.
Here are some key moments during Dr. Gay as president.
December 15, 2022
Harvard University announces that Dr. Gay, the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will become president the following year. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, she will be the university’s first Black leader and the second woman to hold the position. Dr. Gay earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Harvard government.
July 1, 2023
Dr. Gay, 53, is officially starting his position. An advocate for diversity in hiring and an expert on minority representation and political participation in government, she is taking the reins just as the Supreme Court banned the use of race-conscious admissions at Harvard and other universities across the country. country has rejected.
October 8
The day after the Hamas attack on Israel, a coalition of more than thirty student groups published at Harvard an open letter, saying it “holds the Israeli regime fully responsible for all the unfolding violence.” The letter receives strong reactions.
October 9
The leaders of Dr. Gay and Harvard have come under fire for not publicly condemning the Hamas attack or rejecting the student groups’ letter. Amid mounting pressure from alumni and donors, university leaders, including Dr. Gay, an issue out rack expressing heartbreak over the death and destruction caused by the war, while calling for “an environment of dialogue and empathy.”
October 10
Dr. Gay releases another one letterthis time condemning more forcefully the “terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas” and denouncing the letter from the student groups. “While our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group – not even 30 student groups – speaks for Harvard University or its leadership,” she said in the letter.
12 October
A doxxing campaign targets students affiliated with the groups that signed the open letter. A truck carrying a digital billboard — paid for by a conservative group — circles Harvard Square, with students’ photos and names under the headline “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.” Dr. Gay releases another explanationthis time in video format, in which she states that Harvard rejects hate.
the 24th of October
Harvard receives an investigation from The New York Post about what it later describes as “anonymous allegations” of plagiarism in Dr. Gay.
October 27
During a Shabbat dinner at Harvard Hillel, Dr. Gay recommends the formation of an advisory group to help her “develop a robust strategy to combat anti-Semitism on campus.” She also condemns the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a slogan that pro-Palestinian activists use as a call for liberation, but which many Jews see as a call for violence against them.
November 2nd
According to the university, on this day the Harvard Corporation appoints an independent panel of three experts to conduct a review of Dr. Gay referenced in the anonymous allegations.
November 9
After coming under criticism for weeks for what opponents said were lukewarm responses to rising anti-Semitism on campus, Dr. Gay one letter to members of the greater Harvard community addressing the tensions. “Harvard rejects all forms of hate, and we are committed to addressing it,” she wrote. “Let me repeat what I and other Harvard leaders have said before: anti-Semitism has no place at Harvard.”
November 28
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announces an investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism at Harvard.
5th of December
Dr. Gay, along with the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, testifies at a congressional hearing that Republicans in the House of Representatives met to address issues of bias against Jewish students. During the hearing, Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, asks: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment? Yes or no?”
Dr. Gay answers: “That is possible, depending on the context.” She added: “Anti-Semitic rhetoric, when it turns into behavior that amounts to bullying, harassment, is actionable behavior, and we take action.”
December 8
After heavy criticism of the presidents’ responses during the hearing, Dr. Gay apologizes in an interview with The Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper. “What I should have had the presence of mind at that moment was to return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community – threats to our Jewish students – have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged. ,” says Dr. Gay.
December 10
Allegations of plagiarism in Dr.’s dissertation Gay from 1997 are publicly expressed in a newsletter by conservative activist Christopher Rufo. In October, the school had begun investigating what it described as “anonymous allegations” of her work.
A group of fourteen faculty members begin circulating a petition opposing the removal of Dr. Gay. It quickly yields hundreds of signatures.
December 11
The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative media outlet, publishes its own media research of Dr.’s academic articles Gay, which found problems with four of them published between 1993 and 2017, including the dissertation.
12 December
Harvard’s board of directors, the Harvard Corporation, acknowledges that Dr. Gay has made mistakes but decides she will stay in her job. In its statement, the Corporation briefly addresses the allegations about its stock exchange. It says an independent investigation examined her published work and found two articles that needed additional citations, but no “research misconduct.”
the 20th of December
Faced with increasing questions about possible plagiarism in Dr. Gay, Harvard says it has found two additional cases of insufficient citation in Dr. Gay from 1997 – examples of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution.” The university says Dr. Gay will update her thesis and correct these cases.
That same day, a congressional committee investigating Harvard sends a letter to the university demanding all documentation and communications related to the allegations.
Anemona Hartocollis, Sara Mervosh, Jennifer Schuessler, Vimal Patel, Dana Goldstein, Jeremy W. Peters, Rob CopelandAnd Stephanie Saul reporting contributed.