Harvard Faces D.E.I. and Donor Pressures

What Harvard’s drama says about D.E.I.

The resignation yesterday of Claudine Gay, Harvard’s first Black president and the second woman to lead the university, was tied to a mounting crisis over plagiarism allegations. But she had also been under fire for months over what critics said was an insufficient response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Her departure, weeks after Liz Magill stepped down as the University of Pennsylvania’s president, casts a spotlight on the increasingly rocky landscape for the policies known as D.E.I. — diversity, equity, and inclusion — and spurs questions about the power of donors over schools.

Gay’s position became increasingly fraught. Her credibility was weakened by her congressional testimony last month about universities’ responses to antisemitism on campus. Her troubles compounded after conservative activists published a growing litany of plagiarism accusations.

Alumni were also dismayed to learn in recent days that applications for early action admission to Harvard had dropped 17 percent this year to a four-year low.

Gay has become a lightning rod in the debate about D.E.I. She assumed office six months ago, just as the Supreme Court rejected the use of race-conscious admissions at Harvard and other universities. Political clashes came to dominate her tenure — the shortest of any Harvard president — with some conservatives arguing that she was unqualified for the position, a charge her supporters rejected as racist.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative education activist who helped publicize the plagiarism allegations, celebrated her resignation on X as “the beginning of the end for D.E.I. in America’s institutions.”

Companies have been reducing their D.E.I. initiatives over the past year as conservative politicians have taken aim at such programs. Some on Wall Street have suggested that D.E.I. programs were flawed because they didn’t encompass pushback against antisemitism.

Others criticized the treatment of Gay. “This is an attack on every Black woman in this country who’s put a crack in the glass ceiling,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told CNN, adding that he would picket the New York offices of Bill Ackman, the billionaire financier who had repeatedly criticized Gay.

Harvard’s governing board is also under scrutiny. The Harvard Corporation, led by the billionaire and former Obama administration official Penny Pritzker, had initially stood by Gay after the congressional hearing. In its statement backing Gay last month, the corporation acknowledged that it had been made aware of plagiarism allegations starting in October.

Though many Harvard faculty members expressed dismay about Gay’s decision, some called for a shake-up of the governing board. “We need multiple new independent members on the Harvard Corporation that are not tainted by recent events and failures,” Frank Laukien, a visiting scholar of chemistry, told The Times, adding that Pritzker should resign immediately.

And the debate over who should run universities has reopened. Alan Garber, Harvard’s provost, will serve as the school’s interim president. But the process for picking full-time leaders of Harvard and Penn is likely to be heated, especially as increasingly outspoken alumni weigh in.

Ackman taunted Sally Kornbluth, the M.I.T. president who also testified at the December House antisemitism hearing and remains in office. “Et tu Sally?” he posted on X.

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

Wall Street awaits a big Fed release. At 2 p.m. Eastern, the central bank is set to publish the minutes from last month’s rate-setting meeting, when it stunned markets by suggesting a trio of cuts were in the cards this year. The Fed’s message provoked a big year-end rally, but stocks have gotten off to a lackluster start in 2024 as investors wonder whether the bank will begin cutting as soon as March.