She won’t be leading the Crimson, but green shouldn’t be a problem.
via: Radar Online
Outgoing Harvard president Claudine Gay will still bring home a handsome salary as a member of the university staff following her resignation.
Gay will return to a teaching role in the political sciences department and likely maintain a similar six-figure stipend in the coming months, RadarOnline.com has learned amid her plagiarism scandal and ongoing backlash over her response to questions about antisemitism on campus during a congressional hearing in December.
She had served as the school’s top administrator for only six months and announced her departure on Jan. 2.
Records showed that Gay previously earned $879,079 as a faculty of arts and sciences dean in 2021 and $824,068 in 2020.
“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. This is not a decision I came to easily,” Gay wrote in part.
Gay stated that it was in the best interests of the university for her to resign so the community “can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.”
She admitted that amid the public outcry, it has been “distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor” and equally “frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”
“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,” she concluded.
Alan M. Garber will now fill in for Gay temporarily as interim president until Harvard selects a new chief.
Just last month, Gay lit the first menorah candle during a ceremony that was held at Harvard Park, continuing public appearances after her answers at a congressional hearing amid the Israel-Hamas war sparked fury.
During the hearing, Gay stood by her stance that antisemitic demonstrations were protected under the university’s policies regarding free speech, and she vowed to protect those policies despite the backlash Harvard and several other prestigious American schools were receiving.
“We embrace a commitment to free expression – even views that are objectionable, offensive, and hateful,” Gay said before she was plagued by bombshell claims of academic plagiarism.
"As former Presidents of Harvard University, we offer our strong support for Claudine Gay as she leads Harvard into the future. We look forward to supporting President Gay in whatever ways we can as Harvard faces this challenging moment for higher education and the wider world."…
— Harvard University (@Harvard) December 12, 2023
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, a Harvard grad herself, said Gay keeping a job on campus sets a bad precedent.
“She’s not fit to be a faculty member,” Stefanik claimed in a statement to the New York Post. “It’s unacceptable when you have students at Harvard who would be expelled for plagiarism to allow a faculty member who has nearly 50 examples of plagiarism in their very slim body of academic work. It’s absurd and everybody knows it. Harvard knows it too.”
