Harvard president resigns amid plagiarism claims

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. • Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

Gay is the second Ivy League president to resign in the past month after the congressional testimony — Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned Dec. 9.

Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, announced her departure just months into her tenure in a letter to the Harvard community.

After the congressional hearing, Gay’s academic career came under intense scrutiny by conservative activists who unearthed several instances of alleged plagiarism in her 1997 doctoral dissertation. The Harvard Corporation, Harvard’s governing board, initially rallied behind Gay, saying a review of her scholarly work turned up “a few instances of inadequate citation” but no evidence of research misconduct.

Days later, the Harvard Corporation said it found two additional examples of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution.” The board said Gay would update her dissertation and request corrections.

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Hearing postponed for suspect in Tupac case

LAS VEGAS • A bail hearing was postponed Tuesday in Las Vegas for a former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with orchestrating the killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur in 1996, giving defense attorneys time to respond to prosecutors’ allegations that witnesses in the case might be at risk.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ court-appointed attorneys sought the delay to respond to prosecutors’ allegations, filed last week, that jail telephone recordings and a list of names provided to Davis’ family members show that Davis poses a threat to the public if he is released.

No court hearing was held Tuesday. One of Davis’ attorneys, Robert Arroyo, said later that the defense wanted to respond in court in writing. He declined to provide details. Arroyo said last week he did not see evidence that any witness had been named or threatened.

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