Claudine Gay, the president of the 387-year-old institution called Harvard, has tendered her resignation. Her tenure as president was incredible short, in fact, it lasted only 6 months. She was only the 30th president of Harvard, which would put the average tenure at 12.9 years.
Her resignation letter, addressed of course to the Harvard Community, and not to her employer, might well have been written by ChatGPT given how many training sets there are for AI to learn how to write this kind of maudlin academic drivel.
Here it is in its entirety:
Dear Members of the Harvard Community,
It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president. This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries. But, after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.
It is a singular honor to be a member of this university, which has been my home and my inspiration for most of my professional career. My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis. Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.
I believe in the people of Harvard because I see in you the possibility and the promise of a better future. These last weeks have helped make clear the work we need to do to build that future—to combat bias and hate in all its forms, to create a learning environment in which we respect each other’s dignity and treat one another with compassion, and to affirm our enduring commitment to open inquiry and free expression in the pursuit of truth. I believe we have within us all that we need to heal from this period of tension and division and to emerge stronger. I had hoped with all my heart to lead us on that journey, in partnership with all of you. As I now return to the faculty, and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do, I pledge to continue working alongside you to build the community we all deserve.
When I became president, I considered myself particularly blessed by the opportunity to serve people from around the world who saw in my presidency a vision of Harvard that affirmed their sense of belonging—their sense that Harvard welcomes people of talent and promise, from every background imaginable, to learn from and grow with one another. To all of you, please know that those doors remain open, and Harvard will be stronger and better because they do.
As we welcome a new year and a new semester, I hope we can all look forward to brighter days. Sad as I am to be sending this message, my hopes for Harvard remain undimmed. When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity—and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education. I trust we will all find ways, in this time of intense challenge and controversy, to recommit ourselves to the excellence, the openness, and the independence that are crucial to what our university stands for—and to our capacity to serve the world.
Sincerely,
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/business/harvard-president-claudine-gay-has-resigned-read-her-resignation-letter/index.html
Claudine Gay
Bleh… It’s all there. All the weasel words that characterize academia. She’s ‘sharing’ that she’s ‘stepping down.’ She’s doing this selflessly of course, in the best interest of Harvard, so the school may ‘navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge.’ Then there is the boilerplate about ‘connection’ and ‘community’ and how she has been ‘confronting hate.’ There is the declaration that confronting hate while upholding ‘scholarly rigor’ are not just things she does and maybe could do better, but rather, they are, as she says, ‘fundamental to who I am.’
And then, right there at the end of paragraph two, she gives up the game. What has been so ‘distressing’ and called her ‘who I am’ to be questioned? What motives all this bad stuff, stuff so bad she must voluntarily resign? Of course, it’s climate change! No, wait, sorry, the other all-purpose bogeyman: ‘racial animus.’
So, it was racism all along. It’s because she’s black. Of course, it was. She goes on to say, “I considered myself particularly blessed by the opportunity to serve people from around the world who saw in my presidency a vision of Harvard that affirmed their sense of belonging—their sense that Harvard welcomes people of talent and promise, from every background imaginable, to learn from and grow with one another.”
This is, of course, preposterous. Harvard manifestly does not welcome anyone who falls outside of it’s rigid orthodoxy, didn’t go to Harvard, isn’t the child of a Harvard grad, or, most importantly, doesn’t fit the identity box Harvard wants ticked. Claudine Gay might not want to say the quiet part out loud, but she was the black face of the impression Harvard wants to make, but being the face means being the head, and that’s the face and head that goes to Congress when summoned, and it was here, and nowhere else, that Claudine Gay failed and failed badly. She was forced out because her testimony in Congress was miserable, shocking, and entirely incompetent. Racial animus had nothing to do with it. It was game on, and she blew it, big time.
The Republican Congresswomen Elise Stefanik posed a question perfectly fit for the three college presidents she was addressing. It was not a trick question, and it would have been easy to answer. She stated “Doctor Gay, at Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rule around bullying and harassment?” She asked the presidents of MIT and Penn the same question.
Their answers perfectly reveal how much smarter Elise Stefanik is than these three smug college presidents. All three could have just said ‘yes’ but of course, that would have opened them up to the next question, which would have been “Why aren’t you doing something about it on your campus if it violates your policy?” And then they would have had to defend the students who are calling for the genocide of the Jews by stating that the colleges value free speech, even hateful or objectionable speech. Here is where they were caught, dead to rights. Why? Because Stefanik, these three college presidents, the students and faculty at these three taxpayer supported institutions, and everyone else paying attention knows full well that MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard DOES NOT value the freedom of speech. They have rigid speech codes for the ‘protection’ and ‘safety’ of everyone in the ‘community’ but they won’t be enforced if the person under assault is in the ‘oppressor’ class, and that now include Jews.
So, the Congresswoman gave them the rope, and they faithful hanged themselves. The entire clip is already a classic bit of political drama and the body language and facial expressions of the three college presidents tell an incredible story. These three pampered ideologs clearly didn’t know what ‘moment’ they were living in.
Liz McGill at Penn was the first to go, and now, Gay is out. We’ll see how the MIT lady manages, but she is undoubtedly under extreme pressure. What got them was their donors, who were outraged, and it was the threat of losing donations, the cold hard cash that maintains the ‘brand,’ that pushed Claudine Gray out. Race and a ‘racial animus’ had nothing to do with it.
Playing the race card often works, and so, she played it, but she revealed herself to be a big nothing and the Harvard ‘community’ is better off without her. One can only hope for at least a tiny change in leadership from these institutions that shape young minds.
TomRoushOnline 