Pritzker Defends Naming Gay Harvard President in First Interview Since May 2023

Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 said she stood by the Corporation’s decision to appoint Claudine Gay, even though Gay resigned after six months as the University’s 30th president amid plagiarism allegations and an uproar over her handling of campus antisemitism.

“I’m a huge fan of Claudine Gay and I support the selection that we made,” Pritzker said during an interview with The Crimson on Monday, her first in more than a year.

“But we’re now in a different situation,” she added. “Time to move forward.”

Pritzker, who helms the University’s highest governing body, largely avoided the media spotlight during the year since Harvard descended into controversy after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Over the past 14 months, Pritzker repeatedly declined interviews with The Crimson through a University spokesperson.

Though Pritzker repeatedly insisted she was focused on Harvard’s future and not its past, Pritzker said she still believed Gay was the right person at the time to serve as president.

During the 2022 search, Pritzker and the committee selected Gay — then dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences — over two other top Harvard deans with far more extensive scholarly records in what was the shortest presidential search in almost 70 years.

In the process, the Corporation did not review Gay’s scholarship, relying instead on her tenure review and experience as a top University administrator. After Gay submitted multiple corrections to her scholarly work amid plagiarism allegations, some Harvard donors and alumni criticized the secretive presidential search process for failing to properly vet Gay.

Prizker said the search process had been “mischaracterized” since Gay became the focus of national attention.

“It was not a fast search,” Pritzker said. “It was one where we were proud of our decision.”

Pritzker, however, said she was ready to turn the page after Gay’s resignation plunged the University into a monthslong leadership crisis.

“It’s a new day,” Pritzker said. “We should be asking ourselves how to proceed.”

Though Pritzker described Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 as “the right person to lead us now,” she declined to say why he was not offered the job over Gay in 2022.

“I can’t tell you that because I can’t go into the selection process of that time,” Pritzker said. “Obviously that needs to remain confidential.”

In defending the selection, Pritizker also responded to accusations that the Corporation chose Gay because she would be Harvard’s first Black president.

“She was not selected for whatever reasons have been proffered about her race or gender, nor was she selected in haste,” Prtizker said. “She was selected because she’s a leader, she’s a teacher, she’s a mentor, and she served our University well.”

The Corporation has faced blowback for its role in months prior to Gay’s resignation, including for its decision to threaten legal action against the New York Post over credible claims of plagiarism and for its role preparing Gay for her disastrous Dec. 5, 2023 congressional testimony.

Pritzker herself resisted calls to resign alongside Gay in January but remained under scrutiny throughout the spring semester, facing criticism from Harvard faculty members and former University President Lawerence H. Summers.

Prtizker joined the Corporation in 2018 and officially became senior fellow in July 2022, when the presidential search process that ended in Gay’s selection was already well underway. Pritzker’s tenure on the board is slated to end in 2030 and she will almost certainly chair the 2026 search process as well.

As the Corporation conducts a review of its presidential search process, it remains unclear whether Harvard’s two governing boards will rely upon a different configuration of its members during the 2026 presidential search or if the committee will look similarly to the group that appointed Gay in 2022.

Though the search process review is still underway, Pritzker defended her ability to select Garber’s successor during the interview on Monday.

“I’ve received a lot of support for my leadership,” Pritzker said. “There are a few naysayers who I’ve engaged with to understand their concerns.”

“I believe by looking at how we do our search and working with the members of the Corporation, as well as learning from our community, I think that I and the Corporation members can do a good job of finding the next president for Harvard.”

—Staff writer Emma H. Haidar can be reached at emma.haidar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @HaidarEmma.

—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles.