WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- Claudine Gay, the first African American president of Harvard University, resigned from the position Tuesday, Jan. 2. 

She's come under intense criticism, both for her recent testimony about antisemitic incidents on campus and because of accusations first reported by the Washington Free Beacon that she plagiarized some of her past academic writings. 

One of the scholars she's accused of copying is David Canon, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

In her resignation letter, Gay said she was resigning in the best interests of Harvard.