Claudine Gay speaks out about her Harvard exit with 'words of warning' about her loudest critics

Angle down iconAn icon in the shape of an angle pointing down. Claudine Gay Brian Snyder/Reuters

• Claudine Gay reluctantly resigned as Harvard's president on Tuesday.
• Her exit was preceded her response to questioning about Jewish genocide and accusations of plagiarism.
• In an op-ed for the New York Times, she urged skepticism of well-connected critics.

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Claudine Gay has spoken out about her reluctant exit from Harvard in a message that appeared to call out critics like Bill Ackman.

In an op-ed published by The New York Times on Wednesday, Gay warned that her recent ousting was the result of a broader campaign by "opportunists" to undermine American institutions, "from public health agencies to news organizations," to serve their own agenda.

"At tense moments, every one of us must be more skeptical than ever of the loudest and most extreme voices in our culture, however well organized or well connected they might be," she wrote. "Too often they are pursuing self-serving agendas that should be met with more questions and less credulity."

While Gay does not name those opportunists, one of the most outspoken voices calling for her resignation was billionaire investor Bill Ackman.

Since November, the fund manager has written three open letters to Harvard criticizing Gay's response to concerns of antisemitism on campus and her academic work, accusing her of plagiarism.

"In her short tenure as President, Claudine Gay has done more damage to the reputation of Harvard University than any individual in our nearly 500-year history," Ackman wrote in one letter.

Gay also addressed the plagiarism accusations, admitting that there was duplicative language in some of her academic writings and "promptly requested corrections" from the journals that published her work.

A review by Harvard similarly found "a few instances of inadequate citation" but did not determine that the mistakes were "intentional or reckless," The Associated Press reported.

"I have never misrepresented my research findings, nor have I ever claimed credit for the research of others. Moreover, the citation errors should not obscure a fundamental truth: I proudly stand by my work and its impact on the field," Gay wrote in her op-ed, adding that people have not focused on the substance of her work.

A spokesperson for Ackman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.