‘Long overdue’: Elise Stefanik celebrates resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., lauded the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay, saying it was “long overdue.”
Stefanik grilled Gay and other university presidents last year in response to incidents of antisemitism on their respective campuses, which sometimes included calls for exterminating Jews.
In a statement released shortly after Gay announced her resignation, Stefanik said she believed Gay stepping down as Harvard president was “long overdue.”
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“I will always deliver results,” stated Stefanik. “Claudine Gay’s morally bankrupt answers to my questions made history as the most viewed congressional testimony in the history of the U.S. Congress.”
“Her answers were absolutely pathetic and devoid of the moral leadership and academic integrity required of the president of Harvard. This is just the beginning of what will be the greatest scandal of any college or university in history.”
Stefanik went on to promise that Congress’ “investigation will continue to move forward to expose the rot in our most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions and deliver accountability to the American people.”
Last month, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing that looked into how Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were handling incidents of antisemitism on their campuses.
Many were outraged by the responses of the university presidents in the hearing, believing that they failed to properly denounce campus antisemitism and calls for genocide against Jews.
Shortly after the hearing, UPenn President Liz Magill resigned as head of the university following pressure from university staff and donors, and offered an apology for her testimony.
Amid backlash over her testimony before Congress, Gay also faced calls for her resignation after an investigation found that she had engaged in numerous instances of plagiarizing or otherwise failing to properly cite sources in her academic work.
A report from The New York Post last month alleged that Harvard leadership had covered up 27 instances of plagiarism by Gay, with the news publication saying that the Ivy League school had threatened them in response to their investigation. On Monday, The Washington Free Beacon reported on a complaint filed with Harvard citing additional alleged violations, increasing the number of plagiarism claims.
On Tuesday, Gay announced that she was resigning as president of Harvard, following backlash over revelations that she plagiarized multiple papers and her testimony before Congress.
In her resignation letter, Gay said it was “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.”
“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,” stated Gay.
“I trust we will all find ways, in this time of intense challenge and controversy, to recommit ourselves to the excellence, the openness, and the independence that are crucial to what our university stands for — and to our capacity to serve the world.”
Gay, who will remain a member of the faculty, also took issue with the “doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor,” claiming that she was “subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”
On Wednesday, the Institute for Faith & Culture announced that Carol M. Swain, who recently garnered attention because she is one of the academics whom Gay plagiarized, would be joining the Institute as a senior fellow.
Robert J. Pacienza, founder of the Institute for Faith & Culture and senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, reacted to Gay's resignation in a statement shared with The Christian Post: "Given her poor leadership, disastrous response to antisemitism, and serial plagiarism, this was a necessary decision. As Christians, we applaud the decision and pray for better days for Harvard and other Ivy League schools. Next best step for Dr. Gay? Repudiate her progressive worldview, which is both empty and destructive."
