Harvard President Resigns From Office as Scandals Deepen

People were very angry when Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis selected conservative Christopher Rufo to the board of New College in Sarasota. This agitator has made a name for himself by calling for a conservative takeover of educational institutions. He and the other board members nominated by the governor made the institution more orthodox, positioning it to become the most traditionalist Southern university. After that, Rufo decided to target Harvard.

Weeks later, the Ivy League school’s president finally caved to Rufo’s and others’ demands and resigned.

Gay Exits!

On December 5, Harvard President Claudine Gay joined two other university presidents to testify before Congress about the response to the rise in antisemitism on college campuses. During the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) asked her if someone was violating Harvard’s rules for bullying and harassment by “calling for the genocide of Jews.” Gay said it would depend “on the context.”

Gay issued an apology after receiving numerous angry responses to her comments. It didn’t take long for the board of trustees to announce their support for the president and her decision to remain in her position.

Regardless, Rufo and others took action to remove her. The accusations of plagiarism and weeks of pressure finally got to Gay, and she quit. Her resignation was announced “with a heavy heart” in a statement she delivered to the school community on January 2. Resigning was not an easy decision for Gay, but she felt it was “in the best interests of Harvard” to do so.

Rufo’s Crusade

Claims that Gay had stolen other professors’ work were publicized on December 10 by Rufo and conservative writer Christopher Brunet. According to Rufo’s interview with POLITICO, conservatives launched a concerted effort to have Gay resign. This, he added, “demonstrates a winning tactic for the political right.” The article went on to say that Gay’s past admission of plagiarizing others’ work was a key factor in his success. Plagiarism has been detected in approximately fifty of her works.

Being the first Black president of the institution, Gay faced criticism for what some saw as a racial conservative effort to remove her. On X (formerly Twitter), Rufo refuted that claim and accused Gay of being the actual racist. The Supreme Court invalidated Harvard’s racial affirmative action admissions scheme, which she allegedly administered. It should be mentioned, though, that she was not the school president during that period. Rufo further claimed that she was trying to get the school to implement DEI initiatives.

Rufo told POLITICO he intends to run more experiments across the country to see if he can repeat what happened at Harvard.