Harvard board accepts Claudine Gay's resignation 'with sorrow.' It says she was subjected to 'deeply personal attacks.'

• Harvard Corporation says it accepts now-former President Claudine Gay's resignation "with sorrow."
• Gay showed "resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks," a statement says.

After weeks of controversy, including accusations of plagiarism and criticism for her response to a question about Jewish genocide during a congressional hearing, Claudine Gay has stepped down as president of Harvard University.

Her resignation was accepted "with sorrow" by the Harvard Corporation, one of the university's two governing boards.

Gay, the first Black president of Harvard, took over in July of last year. She — alongside the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania — faced criticism after a disastrous congressional testimony that saw her waffle on whether calls for Jewish genocide violated school policy.

Gay, facing calls for resignation, later apologized for the answer. (Penn's president resigned in December; MIT's remains.)

More recently, past plagiarism accusations against Gay came to light. While the Harvard Corporation and faculty members backed Gay, the pressure continued. Gay appeared to allude to the plagiarism allegations in her resignation letter.

She also said that it was "frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus," which the Harvard Corporation also seemed to address in its statement.

The full statement from the Harvard Corporation reads: