By Miles J. HerszenhornHarvard President Claudine Gay’s first few months in office have been consumed by controversy. And the crisis has only heightened in recent weeks.
Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the University released its initial statement about the war to fierce criticism from a wide array of Harvard affiliates.
In the months since, the national outrage against Harvard and its president has escalated from bad to worse, and just six months into her tenure, Gay is facing calls to resign as major donors are ending their relationships with Harvard.
After Gay’s disastrous testimony during a congressional hearing on antisemitism, she came under fire for allegations of plagiarism in her scholarship.
In an exchange during the Dec. 5 testimony, Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.) asked if calling for the genocide of Jewish people would violate Harvard’s policies. In her response, Gay said it depended on context.
Gay faced intense backlash over her answer, alongside two other university presidents who responded similarly. Gay apologized in an interview with The Crimson two days later.
When the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — addressed the crisis after a week of silence, the board declared unanimous support for Gay.
Still, the Corporation acknowledged “extensive deliberations” and said that an investigation into the plagiarism allegations against Gay revealed instances of inadequate citation, though not research misconduct.
In the last month, Gay has submitted seven corrections to her scholarly work. Still, an ongoing congressional investigation into Harvard was widened to include the plagiarism allegations against Gay.
—Cam E. Kettles, Crimson Staff Writer
By Julian J. GiordanoThe Israel-Hamas war unmasked deep campus divisions over Israel and Palestine, with Harvard students and student groups facing intense backlash for their pro-Palestine activism.
Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, a statement penned by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee holding Israel “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” drew fierce criticism from alumni and faculty, lawmakers, and high-profile donors.
Students affiliated with the co-signing groups have since faced calls for retaliation and doxxing attacks, including from a so-called “doxxing truck” that drove around campus. Many students and academics called for greater protection of pro-Palestine activists, who have continued organizing in support of Palestine, often deploying controversial rhetoric such as the term “intifada.”
The University also received widespread criticism for its failure to directly and forcefully condemn Hamas’ attacks. Despite Harvard President Claudine Gay’s condemnation of Hamas in follow-up statements, she has faced sustained backlash from prominent affiliates and members of Congress calling for her to do more to combat antisemitism.
On Dec. 5, Gay testified before Congress, seeking to defend the school’s handling of antisemitism. But her controversial testimony only inflamed criticisms and increased distrust of her leadership — including from campus Jewish leaders — and spurred a congressional investigation into antisemitism on Harvard’s campus.
—Joyce E. Kim, Crimson Staff Writer
By Julian J. GiordanoIn June, the Supreme Court ruled Harvard’s race-conscious admissions practices unconstitutional.
The landmark 6-2 decision capped a nearly decade-long legal battle after anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions sued Harvard in 2014, alleging that the College’s admissions practices systemically discriminate against Asian American applicants and violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In the months since, Harvard’s donor and legacy preferences have come under intense national scrutiny, becoming the subject of both a federal civil rights complaint filed by three civil rights groups and a U.S. Department of Education investigation in July.
Though the fate of such admissions practices at Harvard remains uncertain, University President Claudine Gay said in an October interview with The Crimson that “everything is on the table.”
Harvard has also begun an internal review of its admission process. This fall, the University overhauled its application questions and installed new guidelines for alumni interviewers to bar consideration of applicants’ race or ethnicity.
Earlier this month, Harvard accepted 8.74% of early applicants to the Class of 2028. But in a break from precedent, the University did not release racial demographic data — a move some legal experts called politically motivated.
—Matan H. Josephy, Crimson Staff Writer
By Amanda Y. SuIn April, Harvard announced that billionaire hedge fund CEO and Republican megadonor Kenneth C. Griffin ’89 donated $300 million to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences — and that the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences would be renamed in his honor.
The renaming — following a gift that was at least five years in the making — followed a trend of rechristening schools for major donors. Since 2014, Harvard has attached donor names to two other schools and set the price tag for renaming Harvard Medical School at $1 billion.
Griffin’s unrestricted gift allows the FAS to spend the funds freely, though it’s unclear how much — if any — of the money has supported GSAS directly.
Many faculty and students decried the renaming on the basis of Griffin’s political views, particularly his support for the original version of Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law, from which Griffin later distanced himself. All GSAS student groups were required to include “Griffin” in their organization names to retain official school recognition following the renaming, which drew frustration from LGBTQ+ student leaders.
In the days following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Griffin also called Harvard Corporation leader Penny S. Pritzker ’81 to urge the University to declare its strong support for Israel, raising questions about donors’ access to top university officials.
—Tilly R. Robinson, Crimson Staff Writer
By Frank S. ZhouHarvard President Claudine Gay officially became the University’s 30th president on July 1, making her the first person of color and just the second woman to hold the post in Harvard’s nearly 400-year history.
The University installed Gay as president in a pomp-filled ceremony on Sept. 29, the first time in 160 years a Harvard presidential inauguration was held in a month other than October.
Celebrations for the inauguration began the night before with musical, dance, and other performances honoring the incoming president followed by a reception with drinks and desserts in Annenberg Hall.
At 2 p.m. on Sept. 29, amid a heavy downpour, faculty and administrators began a procession toward the stage in Tercentenary Theatre as the official ceremony got underway.
The inauguration featured speeches from Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81, Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92, and Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, the chancellor of the City University of New York.
The day concluded with Gay’s inaugural address and a party in Harvard Yard featuring music and food.
—Madeleine A. Hung, Crimson Staff Writer
By Julian J. GiordanoIn June, three business school professors alleged that at least four papers authored by Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino contain fraudulent data.
Despite the allegations of Uri Simonsohn, Leif D. Nelson, and Joseph P. Simmons — the professors behind the data investigation blog Data Colada — Gino has maintained her innocence.
On July 28, Gino was notified by Harvard’s Office of the President that the school had begun the process of reviewing her tenure for potential revocation — marking a historic step for the University, which has never stripped a professor of tenure.
Just four days later, Gino filed a defamation suit against the three professors, Harvard, and HBS Dean Srikant M. Datar, claiming they “conspired” to damage her reputation with false accusations. Harvard has since filed a motion to dismiss.
That same month, Datar wrote in an email to HBS faculty that an internal investigation “determined that research misconduct had occurred” in Gino’s work.
As the battle between Gino and Harvard wore on, HBS faculty grew increasingly wary of the school’s administration and the sanctions it had imposed on Gino.
In November, six of Gino’s previous co-authors launched the “Many Co-Authors Project” — a compilation of raw data from all of Gino’s past studies — designed to provide an avenue for academics to review her work.
—Aran Sonnad-Joshi, Crimson Staff Writer
By Leah J. TeichholtzIn the early morning of Apr. 3, four Black seniors in Leverett House were “swatted” after a false 911 call about an armed individual led Harvard University Police Department officers to raid an undergraduate suite and escort the students out at gunpoint.
The attack was followed by a wave of outrage and support from students, administrators, and alumni for the victims of the “swatting” attack. Student organizations also demanded the University do more to support the student victims.
Dozens of Black Harvard groups co-signed a letter with criticisms of Harvard’s response to the attack and five demands, including University-wide recognition of the “significant racial impact” of the attack and an in-person town hall with then-President Lawrence S. Bacow, then-President-elect Claudine Gay, and Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana.
Later in April, eight student representatives — five undergraduates and three graduate students — met with top University administrators and Harvard University Police Department Chief Victor A. Clay. The senior administrators did not agree to the demands but pledged to meet with the students again in the future.
Nearly five months later, more than 400 Harvard affiliates signed a petition asking the University to do more to support Black students at Harvard. The petition pointed to the April swatting attack as well as the Supreme Court’s ruling against Harvard that struck down race-conscious admissions.
—Jina H. Choe, Crimson Staff Writer
By Claire YuanStudents continued to call for the removal or resignation of Harvard professor John L. Comaroff as the University faced litigation for allegedly mishandling years of sexual harassment complaints against the professor.
Comaroff, who was first accused of sexual misconduct in a 2020 investigation by The Crimson, was placed on a semester of unpaid leave in January 2022 after twin internal investigations found he breached Harvard’s sexual harassment and professional retaliation policies.
As with his return to teaching in fall 2022, Comaroff’s first class in spring 2023 saw more than 100 students walk out in protest, sparking national headlines and kicking off a semester of impassioned activism against the African and African American Studies and Anthropology professor.
Following the walkout, hundreds of people emailed Harvard administrators requesting Comaroff’s removal. Students staged a rally in February and an occupation of University Hall in March protesting his continued employment.
In April, a majority of respondents to The Crimson’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences survey said they believed Comaroff should not have been allowed back into the classroom.
Amid the protests, a federal judge mostly rejected Harvard’s motion to dismiss a 2022 lawsuit from three Anthropology graduate students alleging the University ignored sexual harassment allegations against Comaroff.
Though the judge’s ruling allowed the lawsuit to proceed to trial, both parties moved to mediation in November, suggesting a confidential end to the high-profile case.
Comaroff has denied all allegations of misconduct.
—Elyse C. Goncalves, Crimson Staff Writer
By Sedina A. AckuayiFormer Harvard Medical School morgue manager Cedric Lodge was indicted in June for stealing and selling human remains.
A former morgue manager for the HMS Anatomical Gift Program, Lodge and his wife were charged with the interstate transport of stolen goods and mishandling cadavers donated to HMS for scientific study. Several more individuals — to whom Lodge and his wife sold the stolen remains — were also federally charged following an FBI investigation.
Just one defendant has pleaded guilty — the rest, including Lodge, have entered “not guilty” pleas.
In the following months, families affected by Cedric’s mishandling of human remains filed multiple class action lawsuits against both Harvard and Lodge, alleging severe emotional distress and a breach of fiduciary duty.
After a monthslong review, an external panel released recommendations earlier this month for changes to the Anatomical Gift Program, including updating the program’s operations, hiring processes, staffing structures, and cadaver tracking systems. A task force will review and implement the panel’s recommendations.
—Jack R. Trapanick, Crimson Staff Writer
By Frank S. ZhouAt Harvard, 2023 brought a flurry of new appointments — and resignations — to the upper echelons of the University’s administration.
In June, the University announced Ritu Kalra would become Harvard’s next chief financial officer and vice president for finance.
Hopi E. Hoekstra was tapped later that month to succeed Harvard President Claudine Gay as the next dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, concluding the first of five pivotal dean searches that will allow Gay to appoint a third of University’s top deans.
The appointments of Marla F. Frederick as dean of the Harvard Divinity School, David C. Parkes as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Andrea A. Baccarelli as dean of the Harvard School of Public Health displayed Gay’s heavy reliance on candidates with experience on Harvard’s faculty, a trend that may follow into 2024 as the search to replace outgoing Harvard Kennedy School dean Douglas W. Elmendorf continues.
Turnover was not limited to just the University’s top deans. At the end of the 2023-24 academic year, FAS divisional deans Robin E. Kelsey and Christopher W. Stubbs will both step down from their posts. The Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — will also see another member depart: Paul J. Finnegan ’75, Harvard’s longtime treasurer.
—Thomas J. Mete, Crimson Staff Writer