Blackburn Community Celebrates Harvard President Gay’s Resignation: Calls for Timelier Action
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, commented on Harvard President Claudine Gay’s retirement on Tuesday, stating that it was long overdue.
In the wake of plagiarism accusations and her and other Ivy League presidents’ dismal testimony regarding the antisemitic problems afflicting their campuses during a congressional hearing, Gay announced her resignation as president of Harvard University.
Speaking over the phone with Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Blackburn claimed that Gay’s departure was “appropriate.”
“Her resignation from her position was a fitting decision,” Blackburn stated. “She should have done it sooner.”
The senator from Tennessee went on, “I give the House committee a lot of credit for the way they conducted that hearing and the results that it has brought forward.”
“There is no place for antisemitism on our nation’s college campuses or in this country,” she stated.
Fox News Digital requested a statement from Harvard University.
Despite being widely accused of plagiarism, Gay will rejoin the Harvard faculty after announcing her resignation in a letter on Tuesday afternoon.
Gay’s departure would end the shortest Harvard presidency in the university’s history, according to the Harvard Crimson, the newspaper of the Ivy League school.
Dr. Alan Garber, the provost of Harvard, will take over as interim president, the Boston Globe said citing reliable sources.
Gay apologized during her congressional testimony, and the university’s board finally opted to support her despite several requests for her removal from office from Congressmen and funders. Following Hamas’ terrorist assaults in southern Israel on October 7, there has been an increase in antisemitism at American campuses, prompting the hearing.
Gay was also at the heart of a scandal wherein she was charged with many counts of plagiarism in academic publications.
Jennifer Griffin and Danielle Wallace of Fox News Digital contributed to this article.