What does racial animus mean? Claudine Gay's resignation letter explored in the wake of the Harvard plagiarism scandal

On January 2, 2024, Claudine Gay, the President of Harvard University, resigned from her post only six months after her appointment. The move comes in the wake of pressure building on her to address the issue of growing antisemitism in the U.S. colleges, including the Ivy League institution. Claudine Gay was also accused of plagiarizing some of her academic works.

“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,” she wrote in her lengthy resignation letter.

Claudine Gay cited that her exit was because she was frightened and was constantly “subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.” For those uninitiated, the expression “racial animus” means hostility or animosity emerging out of racial discrimination, as per Avvo.

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All you need to know about Claudine Gay’s resignation letter

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned on Tuesday after she was accused of incompetence in stopping the rising antisemitism on the Ivy League campus alongside plagiarism allegations that arose against her name and academic works.

Addressing the Harvard community, she wrote that it was with a “heavy heart” and “deep love” that she was stepping down as the President after consulting with the members of the Harvard Corporation.

“It had 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,” she wrote.

Claudine Gay added in her letter that Harvard has been her “home” and “inspiration” throughout her academic career, and it was painful for her to watch the growing “tensions and divisions” on the campus in the last few months. Gay continued by saying that the Harvard community has weakened recently, and the “bonds of trust and reciprocity” have been shaken in the ongoing “times of crisis.”

“Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus,” Gay wrote.

She said she was hopeful of a better future for the institution. She wrapped up by saying she believed that they would “combat bias and hate in all forms, to create a learning environment in which we respect each other’s dignity and treat one another with compassion… open enquire, free expression in the pursuit of truth.”

Claudine Gay said she would return to the faculty position and focus on scholarship and teaching rather than administration. She also confessed that serving as the President was an honor and privilege.

“When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening… I trust we will all find ways, in this time of intense challenge and controversy, to recommit ourselves to the excellence, openness, and independence that are crucial to what our university stands for…,” Gay concluded.

As per CNN Business, Harvard Corporation stated that the search for a new president will be initiated “in due course.” However, Provost Alan Garber will serve as the interim President, as per The Harvard Gazette.

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The events that led up to Claudine Gay’s resignation

According to The Guardian, Claudine Gay was appointed the Harvard President in July 2023. She became the first Black individual and the only second woman in the post. However, her tenure was short-lived, as she recently resigned.

On October 10, 2023, Claudine Gay first came to the limelight after she publicly condemned the Hamas attack on Israel. She also criticized the Harvard student groups that were pro-Hamas and said they did not speak for the institution or its leadership.

On December 5, Claudine Gay was called to testify before Congress alongside the Presidents of MIT and UPenn about the disciplinary actions taken in the wake of rising anti-Jewish sentiments in the Ivy League schools.

The session was presided over by Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, who asked Gay if the Harvard administration planned on taking any action to discipline the pro-Palestine students using slogans including “From the River to the Sea” and “intifada” (Arabic for “uprising”). According to the congresswoman, such terms were in favor of “violent armed resistance against the state of Israel, including violence against civilians and the genocide of Jews.”

However, Gay said that even though she found the speeches “abhorrent” and “at odds with the value of Harvard,” the institution continued to encourage free speech and expression, “even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful.”

She added that as long as the speeches did not turn into actions that violated Harvard’s policies, such as bullying, harassment, violence, etc., no action would be taken. Since then, the internet has demanded the resignation of Claudine Gay.

While initially she defended herself on X (formerly Twitter), later, during an interview with the Harvard Crimson, Gay issued a mea culpa for her Congressional testimony, saying she “got caught up” in “an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures,” and committed to providing a safe and secured campus for its Jewish students and faculty.

A few days later, Claudine Gay was slammed with plagiarism charges by conservative activists. Billionaire business mogul Bill Ackman even claimed that many of Claudine’s academic works were plagiarized, and she was hired as Harvard President only to fulfill “diversity” needs.

Around the same time, the Harvard Corporation revealed that three articles penned by Gay have had plagiarism allegations since October. On December 15, the President requested that two of them, one from 2001 and the other from 2017, be allowed to correct. However, she denied plagiarism allegations and stood by the integrity of her academic works.

An investigation by the Corporation also revealed that aside from a few inadequate citations, there was no evidence of misconduct on Gay’s part. Meanwhile, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce began their investigation. Subsequently, Gay requested to correct her 1997 PhD dissertation, which further stirred up the plagiarism scandal.

On New Year’s Day, plagiarism experts told CNN that Claudine Gay’s 2001 article 'The Effect of Minority Districts and Minority Representation on Political Participation in California' indeed had marks of plagiarism. They even said it was from a 1999 book by David T. Cannon, and Gay did not use proper citations or quotations, making the case go against her.

While Cannon defended Claudine Gay, saying they were fellow scholars and both he and her were “defining basic terms” and he did not consider it “even close to an example of potential plagiarism,” experts claimed that the sentiments of Cannon did not matter in this case.

For instance, plagiarism and copyright specialist Jonathan Bailey told the media source that the “best thing” Claudine Gay could do to save her career and Harvard’s reputation was to resign.