The decline and fall of Harvard’s president

When it comes to scandals, the drip-drip-drip kind can prove deadly. Embarrassments accrue; the mess metastasises. So it was with Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University. Revelations of plagiarism in her academic work were first publicised weeks ago. But more kept surfacing. The latest allegations, published on January 1st in the , a conservative outlet, brought the total to several dozen. The next day she resigned, a mere six months into her post—the shortest tenure in Harvard’s history. She determined that this was in the university’s best interests. Harvard’s provost, Alan Garber, will fill the job on an interim basis.Plagiarism did for Ms Gay, a political scientist by training. But the pressure on her to step down began with her response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7th. Critics—Harvard donors, professors, politicians—assailed her for not immediately condemning the violence and not disavowing a statement by pro-Palestinian students that blamed Israel. Larry Summers, a former president of Harvard, said he had “never been as disillusioned and alienated” with the university. A few days later Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman, called on Ms Gay to resign.