Following Claudine Gay’s resignation from the Presidential post at Harvard last week, there has been a lot of speculation on who will be filling the chair next and one of the potential candidates seems to be the former US President Barack Obama. The long talked about news arrived on Tuesday, January 2 in an email with Claudine Gay stating how she arrived at this decision after intense discussions with the University’s Corporation.
Claudine Gay took charge as the President of Harvard University in July, 2023 making her the University’s first ever Black President. Within the short span of her service, Claudine Gay was met with allegations on Anti-Semitism and plagiarism. The claims against the former University President were made following the release of a statement from a student group in support of Palestine. The backlash was due to the University’s lack of a proper response to the matter. Added to this was the plagiarism allegations Claudine Gay was met with on her academic works. This resulted in Claudine Gay resigning from her post on January 2, 2024, making her tenure the shortest one in the University’s history. However, Claudine Gay’s resignation was quite shocking considering how Harvard Corporation was in support of Claudine Gay retaining her position as the President of the University.
Barack Obama is a Harvard graduate himself and is seemingly an ideal candidate to take up the Presidential post at the University. It is certain that the University will soon commence its search for a “good” replacement to ‘Claudine Gay’ and it is highly likely that the former US President could be approached for the role. Social media seem to be in favor of the matter and with a week having passed since Claudine Gay’s resignation, a decision will soon be made due to the apparent instability Harvard like any other institution could face in the absence of a President.
