Claudine Gay's resignation highlights the trouble with regulating academic writing

Then-Edgerley Family Dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay addresses an audience during commencement ceremonies, May 25, 2023, on the school's campus in Cambridge, Mass. Gay, Harvard University's president, resigned Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned her post on Tuesday, following controversial congressional testimony over campus antisemitism and amid mounting allegations of plagiarism that have plagued the once-rising star of academia in recent weeks.

Gay’s resignation underscores the intense scrutiny confronting university presidents who are the public faces of the institutions they lead.

Gay is not the first head of an academic institution unseated by allegations of plagiarism: Marc Tessier-Lavigne resigned last year as Stanford’s president after an investigation found several academic reports he authored contained manipulated data. And in 2021, Robert Caslen resigned as president of the University of South Carolina after plagiarizing part of a speech.