Harvard’s outgoing plagiarist president Claudine Gay will KEEP her almost $900,000 salary
Harvard University’s outgoing President, Claudine Gay, is poised to continue earning nearly $900,000 annually, despite her recent resignation from the top administrative position. The decision to step down came amid a storm of allegations suggesting she had not taken sufficient action against antisemitism and was guilty of academic plagiarism.
Gay, a Political Science professor, is set to return to a faculty position at the prestigious institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts despite the scandals. Prior to assuming the presidency just six months ago, Gay earned $879,079 as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean in 2021 and $824,068 in 2020, as per university records, the New York Post reports.
While details about her new faculty position were not provided on Tuesday, it is anticipated that her salary will be on par with, if not higher than, her previous earnings. The extent of her entitlement to the presidential salary, estimated at around $1 million, considering her brief six-month tenure, remains unclear.
“It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president,” Gay wrote in her resignation letter. “This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries” Gay wrote in her resignation letter.
“After consultation with members of the Corporation,” she added, “it has become clear that it is 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.”
Upon resignation, Gay said it had been “distressing” to have doubt cast on her “commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor,” chalking it up to “personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”
Harvard’s previous president, Lawrence Bacow, earned an annual salary of $1.3 million before his departure, according to reports from the Harvard Crimson. In the interim, Alan M. Garber, the current provost and chief academic officer, will step in as the acting president until a permanent replacement is selected, as announced by university officials on Tuesday.