Claudine Homosexual, the primary Black girl and the second girl to steer Harvard College, has resigned from her function after lower than a 12 months within the function after going through intense scrutiny over a congressional listening to on campus antisemitism in addition to widening allegations of plagiarism in her tutorial work.
Homosexual despatched her resignation letter on Tuesday afternoon, January 2, to the Harvard group, explaining that her determination to step down got here after consulting with the college’s governing board and she’s going to stay on college.
“It’s with a heavy coronary heart however a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will probably be stepping down as president,” Homosexual mentioned in a letter to the Harvard group. “This isn’t a call I got here to simply. Certainly, it has been tough past phrases as a result of I’ve regarded ahead to working with so lots of you to advance the dedication to tutorial excellence that has propelled this nice college throughout centuries.”
However after consulting with the college’s board, Homosexual added, “it has develop into clear that it’s in the most effective pursuits of Harvard for me to resign in order that our group can navigate this second of extraordinary problem with a give attention to the establishment relatively than any particular person.”
Homosexual’s six-month tenure is the shortest within the college’s 388-year historical past, based on the Harvard Crimson scholar newspaper. She was the primary Black particular person and the second girl to steer the establishment.
In December, Homosexual got here below fireplace for her responses to questioning from U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik throughout a congressional listening to about antisemitism on faculty campuses. Shortly afterwards, critics raised questions on whether or not she had plagiarized parts of her printed tutorial work within the Nineties and 2000s.
Harvard’s governing physique mentioned it had initiated an impartial evaluation of Homosexual’s works and located some insufficient quotation — however didn’t go as far as to say she had plagiarized materials. Homosexual submitted corrections to her dissertation and two analysis articles.
Allegations of plagiarism arose once more when Harvard mentioned it had discovered two extra examples of insufficient quotation in Homosexual’s 1997 doctoral dissertation. Officers mentioned the issue concerned “duplicative language with out applicable attribution.”
Homosexual addressed these difficulties in her resignation, saying it has been painful to witness the tensions and divisions which have roiled her transient tenure as president in current months.
“It has been distressing to have doubt solid on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values which might be basic to who I’m—and scary to be subjected to non-public assaults and threats fueled by racial animus,” she wrote in her letter to the Harvard group.