After being pressured into resignation from her job as the school’s top administrator, Claudine Gay will reportedly still earn nearly $900,000 a year in a different position within Harvard.
The political science professor and former president, Gay, stepped down in response to allegations that she did not do enough to stand against antisemitism at the university and was later also accused of allegedly having committed academic plagiarism, this past Tuesday. Despite these crucial changes and charges, she will soon return to the school’s faculty.
Her new position at the school has not been specified, though she is reportedly projected to make a comparable salary to that of when she was the university’s president.
Before Gay was named president six months ago, she reportedly earned $879,079 annually as a faculty member and dean of the arts and sciences in 2021, and $824,068 in 2020, according to records published by Harvard.
It’s not completely clear how much Gay earned during her time as president, as she only served in that capacity for six months. Her predecessor, Lawrence Bacow, however, made $1.3 million annually before his departure, as stated by the Harvard Crimson.
Until the school chooses a new leader, Alan M. Garber, who currently works as the provost and chief academic officer, will serve as interim president, officials disclosed this past Tuesday.
Elise Stefanik, House GOP Conference Chairwoman and Harvard graduate who was also one of the members to question Gay during the hearing of University presidents, protested against the decision to let Gay remain on the faculty. Stefanik’s questioning of Gay on antisemitism at Harvard turned out to be a significant factor in her resignation, along with numerous allegations of plagiarism in her published work.
According to the Post, Stefanik commented that Gay’s plagiarism charges have done irrevocable damage to the school’s legitimacy.
“It’s unacceptable when you have students at Harvard who would be expelled for plagiarism to allow a faculty member who has nearly 50 examples of plagiarism in their very slim body of academic work. It’s absurd and everybody knows it. Harvard knows it too,” Stefanik claimed.
Some of the school’s current board members have also publicly addressed their concerns with Gay and other faculty who have been associated with her.
Visiting chemistry scholar Frank Laukien singled out billionaire Chicago hotel owner and senior fellow of the Harvard corporation Penny Pritzker in an email to the Times, for her affiliation to Gay and alleged misconduct, claiming “We need multiple new independent members on the Harvard Corporation that are not tainted by recent events and failures, and who are not part of the longstanding cronyism at the top of Harvard.”
On her side of the issue, Gay- who said she was stepping down as president to permit the school to stabilize amidst the controversy- also said she’s looking forward to returning to a faculty post in her resignation statement, asserting her commitment to education.
