READ: Claudine Gay’s resignation letter in full where she bitterly claims she was the VICTIM of ‘threats fueled by racial animus’ and urges Harvard not to be ‘undermined by rancor and vituperation’
Dear members of the Harvard community,
It is with great sadness that we write in light of President Claudine Gay's message announcing her intention to resign as president and resume her faculty position at Harvard.
First and foremost, we thank President Gay for her deep and unwavering commitment to Harvard and her pursuit of academic excellence. During her long and distinguished leadership as Dean of the Social Sciences and then as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences – where she skillfully guided the FAS through the COVID-19 pandemic and pursued ambitious new academic initiatives in areas such as quantum science and inequality – showed the insight, decisiveness and empathy that characterize her. She believes passionately in Harvard's mission of education and research, and she cares deeply about the people whose talents, ideas, and energy drive Harvard. She has dedicated her career to an institution whose ideals and priorities she has worked tirelessly to advance, and we are grateful for the extraordinary contributions she has made – and will continue to make – as a leader, teacher, scholar, mentor, and a inspiration for many.
We are also grateful to Alan M. Garber, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, who has served in this role with distinction for the past twelve years – and who has agreed to serve as interim president until a new leader for Harvard is identified and takes office. . An economist and physician, he is a distinguished and versatile scholar with appointments at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. We are fortunate to have someone with Alan's breadth and depth of experience, astute judgment, collaborative style and exceptional institutional knowledge to advance key priorities and guide the University through this interim period.
In recent months, Harvard and higher education have faced a series of ongoing and unprecedented challenges. In light of escalating controversies and conflicts, President Gay and the Fellows have sought to be guided by the best interests of the institution whose future progress and well-being we seek to uphold together. Her own message, conveying her intention to resign, eloquently underlines what those who have worked with her have long known: her commitment to the institution and its mission is deep and selfless. With that overarching consideration in mind, we accepted her resignation.
We do that with sadness. While President Gay has acknowledged and taken responsibility for missteps, it is also true that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and persistent attacks. While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of disgusting and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her through outrageous emails and phone calls. We condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms.
The search for a new president of the university will begin in due course. We will remain in further contact about the process, which will include broad engagement and consultation with the Harvard community in the near future.
Today we conclude by reiterating our thanks to President Gay for her dedicated service to Harvard, and to Provost Garber for his willingness to lead the University through the coming period. We also thank you all for your continued commitment to Harvard's essential education and research mission – and to its core values of excellence, inclusivity, and free inquiry and expression. At a time when strife and division are so widespread in our nation and our world, embracing and advancing that mission – in a spirit of common purpose – has never been more important. We live in difficult and troubling times, and enormous challenges lie ahead. May our community, with its long history of rising through change and storm, find new ways to meet these challenges together, and reaffirm Harvard's commitment to generating knowledge, pursuing the truth, and through science and education to contribute to a better world.
The Fellows of Harvard College
Penny Pritzker, Senior Fellow
Timothy R. Barakett, treasurer
Kenneth I. Chenault
Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuellar
Paul J. Finnegan
Biddy Martin
Karen Gordon Mills
Diana L Nelson
Tracy P. Palandjian
Shirley M. Tilghman
Theodore V. Wells, Jr.