On Tuesday, Harvard University President Claudine Gay announced that she would be stepping down from her role. After weeks of controversy surrounding campus politics and her academic background, she will return to her faculty position.
Gay was the first Black leader of the prestigious university and resigned after six new instances of plagiarism were reported, bringing the total number of allegations against her to over two dozen. The resignation was just six months and two days after she took the helm of the university.
Confirmation of Gay's resignation was also announced by the Harvard Corporation, the highest governing body of the university, in a separate statement.
"With great sadness, we write in light of President Claudine Gay’s message announcing her intention to step down from the presidency and resume her faculty position at Harvard."
A complaint alleges that Gay copied almost half a page of material word for word from David Cannon’s 1999 book “Race Redistricting and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts” for her 2001 article.
The complaint also included additional concerns regarding Gay's dissertation noting mistakes in citations or quotes.