Former Harvard University President Claudine Gay will reportedly keep her $900,000 annual salary in spite of the fact she resigned this week amid plagiarism allegations and despite her refusal to call out anti-Semitism.
Gay ended her time leading the university as the shortest-tenured president in its storied history – a mere six months – and she did not admit to any wrongdoing in her resignation letter.
She was relatively unknown to most Americans until early last month when she and a number of other Ivy League school presidents each refused to call out anti-Semitism on their campuses.
The other university heads, including Gay, each defended their pro-Hamas students.
Gay declined at one point to state whether calling for the genocide of Jews on campus broke the university’s rules against bullying and harassment. Student groups used hateful language after 1,400 Jews were masacred by Hamas on Oct. 7.
There were immediate calls for her to step down, but she dug in.
It was not until glaring examples of apparent plagiarism throughout her academic career became apparent that her seat got hot.
On Tuesday, Gay finally abdicated said seat and stated she would be resigning.
“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,” Gay wrote.
Do you think she should retain her salary?
According to a report, Gay is likely not going anywhere – nor is the almost $1 million annual salary she was offered when she was selected as the school’s president.
The New York Post reported Gay is expected to return to teaching political science and is not expected to take a pay cut.
In fact, Gay could actually receive a pay raise.
Throughout the past month, her colleagues at Harvard have stood by her – through both her failure to condemn calls for genocide and through the plagiarism scandal.
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, a Harvard alum and one of the lawmakers who challenged her regarding on-campus hate, told the Post that Gay does not belong near campus.
“She’s not fit to be a faculty member,” Stefanik told the newspaper.
Stefanik cited the school’s rules on plagiarism, which can result in expulsion for students.
“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,” Stefanik said.
The New York Republican added, “It’s absurd and everybody knows it. Harvard knows it too.”
