Here’s what led up to Harvard president Claudine Gay’s resignation

After months of scrutiny, Harvard president Claudine Gay announced her resignation Tuesday, making hers the shortest term in the university’s history.

After months of scrutiny, Harvard president Claudine Gay announced her resignation Tuesday, making hers the shortest term in the university’s history. Gay became Harvard’s first Black president in July 2023 after a career studying American political behavior and serving in other administrative roles. Her resignation comes less than a month after she and other leaders of prestigious universities testified before Congress about antisemitism on campus in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. Critics attacked Gay and the other presidents for their statements on free speech and antisemitism, which snowballed into further scrutiny of Gay and allegations of plagiarism in her past. She announced her resignation in a letter to the Harvard community, saying that the decision was “difficult beyond words.” She also described facing “personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.” Here’s what we know about the months preceding Gay’s resignation. A coalition of student groups at Harvard released a statement blaming Israel for the violence shortly after Hamas launched a devastating attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 200 people hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The letter linked the attacks to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and called on Harvard to “take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians.” The letter drew sweeping condemnation from business leaders, who called for the students whose groups signed the statement to be blacklisted. A spokesperson for the coalition later wrote in a statement that the group “staunchly opposes violence against civilians — Palestinian, Israeli, or other.”