Claudine Gay is out as the president of Harvard.Public figures and business people shared mixed reactions to Gay stepping down.Some celebrated and others questioned if the move could set a bad precedent.
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The public uproar spearheaded by some of the biggest names in business has ended with Harvard President Claudine Gay resigning from her role after weeks of blowback and plagiarism allegations.
Gay announced Tuesday in a letter that she was stepping down, and reactions have poured in on social media from both her supporters and critics.
Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary and Harvard president emeritus recently named to OpenAI’s interim board, applauded Gay’s decision to step down.
“I admire Claudine Gay for putting Harvard’s interests first at what I know must be an agonizingly difficult moment,” he wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Elon Musk voiced his agreement with a social media user’s post that said Gay had been “caught plagiarizing.”
Emil Michael, Uber’s former chief business officer, said it was “about time” and turned his criticism to Harvard’s governing corporation.
I admire Claudine Gay for putting Harvard’s interests first at what I know must be an agonizingly difficult moment. Alan Garber, who is universally liked, admired, and respected, is a superb choice as Interim President. At this complex juncture, there will be much to reflect on…
— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) January 2, 2024
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who played a leading role in the push to see Gay and the other university presidents relieved of their duties following their testimonies on antisemitism concerns on campuses, reacted to the news on X.
“Et tu Sally?” Ackman wrote in response to the news of Gay’s resignation, referencing the last remaining school president who testified before Congress on antisemitism concerns and hasn’t stepped down, MIT’s Sally Kornbluth.
Harvard initially backed Gay while some called for her resignation based on her handling of a question about Jewish genocide during her congressional testimony. Former University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill, who testified alongside Gay, resigned after her answer to the same question drew backlash.
About time. Hopefully, it’s a chance to recast Harvard back toward original mission of pursing VE RI TAS (TRUTH)! Now it’s time for the Harvard Corporation to reconstitute as well as they have failed us all for too long. https://t.co/3yUDw6tciF
— Emil Michael (@emilmichael) January 2, 2024
Conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who accused Gay of plagiarism online, appeared to take credit for her resignation.
“My strategies, however unorthodox, have proven successful at exposing corruption, changing public opinion, and moving institutions,” Rufo wrote on X.
Longtime Elon Musk friend and venture capitalist Jason Calacanis referred to the plagiarism allegations, writing that “sometimes there is honor amongst thieves” in a social media post.
Not everyone celebrated Gay’s resignation. Some wrote that they worried it could set a bad precedent in the academic world.
Former Google AI researcher Timnit Gebru, whose departure from the tech giant made headlines in 2020, accused Gay’s critics of harassment.
“Rage at what these racists did to Claudine Gay. Couldn’t even keep a Black woman as president for one year without harassing & stalking her out,” Gebru wrote. “They have the most unbelievably horrific white men at the highest levels of leadership but Black women? Of course not.”
Pulitzer Prize winner and “1619 Project” author Nikole Hannah Jones described the move as a “well-executed plan” and part of an attack on academic freedom in a series of posts on X.
Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, said that Gay’s resignation “on the heels of Liz Magill’s set dangerous precedent in the academy for political witch hunts. The project isn’t to thwart hate but to foment it thru vicious takedowns. This protects no one.”
Some, like startup founder Gary Marcus, who sold his company to Uber in 2016, pondered the implications of Gay’s resignation on the wider business world, questioning what the plagiarism allegations against Gay could mean for generative AI companies.
“If Claudine Gay resigned amid plagiarism charges, where does that leave OpenAI and Midjourney, which regularly produce near verbatim replicas of trademark characters, at the slightest prompting, never ever providing attribution,” Marcus said.
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