Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns. Breaking News, Harvard University president Claudine Gay will resign amid allegations of plagiarism. According to news reports Tuesday, The Harvard Crimson student newspaper and [00:00:16] the Boston Globe cited sources and articles that said Gay will step down. Give you more details about it. Gay has been under fire there, of course, for weeks because of how she has handled controversy at Harvard over the war in Gaza, and because of [00:00:33] allegations that she failed to properly cite sources in her academic papers. On Monday, The Free Beacon news site reported that a new, unsigned complaint filed with Harvard had alleged six new allegations of plagiarism against Gay. [00:00:50] CNBC with the reporting here. Spokesman for Harvard, and Gay's office, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC. Now, despite critics calling for her firing, she previously garnered support, [00:01:06] saved her temporarily support from colleagues. Meanwhile, 511 faculty members at Harvard have signed a letter of support for Gay. Saying she should remain in her leadership post, quote, defend the independence of the university and to resist political [00:01:23] pressures that are at odds with Harvard's commitment to academic freedom, including calls for the removal of President Guaning Gay. More than 770 Black Harvard alum allies also pledged support for Gay in another letter that also condemned anti-Semitism. [00:01:42] Now this comes as billboard trucks reportedly drove around the campus with signs that read fire gay and a black star picking up more of the details for us. So, again, Rayvana, this is breaking news. Harvard University president is out. [00:02:03] I had hoped that perhaps there would be more discussions and this would lead her comments in front of Congress, which seemed robotic. I mean, let's face it, they seem robotic and didn't go far enough, particularly from the congresswoman who wanted to seize the spotlight and all of that. [00:02:20] Her comments did not outwardly condemn anti-Semitism and what is attached to it, threats, attacks. But I had hoped that this would just lead to more discussion, more openness about everything. Because to me, that's what universities, including Harvard, [00:02:38] known as the best one of them Ivy League, are supposed to be about. What say you? >> Speaker 2: I think that I'm unsurprised about her resignation just because of the intense pressure campaign for her to resign and the donors pulling out. [00:02:56] That is what the institution really cares about at the end of the day is its massive endowment and keeping those individuals happy. But I agree, watching the hearing, I thought that she and the others, it wasn't the best delivery that it could have been. [00:03:14] But the questions being asked were loaded questions. And the response that she gave that what I couldn't really wrap my head around was how upset people were about it was that the school is following the legal standards that have been set in our courts as to what constitutes free speech. [00:03:34] And that's the level that they're going to apply in their institution for the protections for their students, which is not something they have to do, but something they've chosen to do. And so when the answers were given, that speech has to incite violence for it to be protected. [00:03:50] That is just the legal standard. That is what courts have stated, and that's what this institution and others have decided to use as their standard. And people framed it as something completely different than what was said. I think that, again, you're right, [00:04:05] that they could have gone further in condemning anti-Semitism. I would have liked to see more statements about also protecting Muslim students on college campuses who are also facing harassment. Doxxing, as you mentioned, those trucks driving around that read fire gay, [00:04:20] they're also doxxing Muslim students, Palestinian students on campuses. They park outside of their homes to harass them. So I would have liked to see strong condemnation of anti-semitism as well as condemnation of islamophobia. [00:04:35] And it could have gone a lot further. But at the end of the day, I don't think that it warrants a resignation. And I will say that this resignation is also a symbol that the far right has won [LAUGH] because it was their plan to introduce [00:04:53] this allegation of plagiarism to try to get her to resign. They've stated as much online. Christopher Rufo, one of the champions of creating the controversy of supposed critical race theory being taught in our elementary school, [00:05:09] stated that this was the far rights plan to get her to resign to increase harassment of her as well as other presidents. So congratulations to everybody who helped them secure this victory. It's ridiculous. And anyone who's been working in academia for [00:05:25] years might have forgot to put a quotation mark somewhere in one of their papers. I mean, you could dig up anything like this about anybody working in academia. So, I mean, I think that at the end of the day, it's ridiculous. And I don't think anyone cares about some plagiarism, [LAUGH] >> Yeah. >> If I'm being perfectly honest. [00:05:41] >> Speaker 1: And I prefer an honest discussion, even honest discourse. Okay, if you want me out as a symbolic thing, if you want me out because I am not your cup of tea, I represent the left or I'm too woke, then let's just go there. [00:05:58] Let's not introduce something else. And I hope that you'll inform me, Rayvana, that I can. Is there any way I can send a letter to my alma mater and tell them they better not disclose anything about my writings or anything else. I don't want anything released. [00:06:14] And I can't remember all the things I did or didn't do. I'm not copying to anything, but I just don't want anything released. Let me ask you this one, because I'm hearing bubblings, rumblings, perhaps even louder than that. I have a high school bestie who I adore, who had one of the shortest tenures, [00:06:32] most recently as the president of Temple University. The first black president in more than 100 years, perhaps. I don't know. I think it was 122, maybe. And then here you have Harvard. Okay, here we go again. [00:06:47] And I'm not suggesting that people of color, even who sit in the president's chair, should not be judged for their behaviors accordingly. But what I am saying is, here are institutions that took so damn long, okay, to even open the door to another, [00:07:06] I put in quotation marks, and now they are some of the first to get the hook. I don't mind fairness, but can I get fairness on the way in? And then it makes it easier on the way out. What say you? >> Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say earlier, I think that if she was not [00:07:23] a black woman, she would not have had this intense pressure campaign to resign. It was why she, amongst all of the university presidents who were at that meeting, was targeted specifically. They felt that they could turn the tides against her more easily because she is [00:07:40] a black woman and this is an institution that has a long history of racism. It is an institution that took so long to have a black woman as the president in the first place. And they felt that this was, amongst those presidents, [00:07:56] the weakest link that they could attack and that she would have less protection. And unfortunately, they were right. And I think that racism played no small part in the fact that she was forced to resign. >> Speaker 1: Yeah, and that includes Stefanik, who did the questioning. [00:08:14] I'll give her cred. She did that, okay. She utilized her moment, and it was played over and over again. And perhaps those who scream the loudest won, okay. As you said, in this case, I just would like to see honest discussion, [00:08:32] honest discourse, too. We'll keep following it, let you know if there's any further developments.