Barack is among list of names touted to replace disgraced Claudine Gay after anti-Semitism and plagiarism scandal

• Barack Obama wouldn’t be the first ex-POTUS to take charge of an elite college
• Harvard said that the search ‘will include broad engagement and consultation’

Barack Obama has been touted as a contender for the next president of Harvard after the resignation by Claudine Gay due to an anti-Semitism and plagiarism scandal.

The former president, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991, may be a candidate for the position – and he wouldn’t be the first ex-POTUS to take charge of an elite college.

Alan M. Garber is currently the interim president of Harvard, but the institution is understood to still be weighing up its options for a permanent replacement for Gay.

Harvard University – who has not named any candidates yet – said the search for a new leader ‘will include broad engagement and consultation with the Harvard community in the time ahead.’

Discussions over who should take over Gay have swirled on social media, with names such as Deval Patrick, Danielle Allen, and Barack Obama‘s popping up, according to the Boston Globe. 

Robert Putnam, professor emeritus of public policy at Harvard, told the Globe: ‘There ought to be somebody who has a track record.

‘We’re not going to be guessing whether they’re going to be good or not; we know they’re good.

He said it would be ‘highly desirable that the person be either a person of color, or a woman, or even better, both.’

Putnam, who knows Barack, told the Globe that he doubts Obama would take the job of Harvard President.

Larry Ladd, senior consultant with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, told the Globe: ‘It will be harder to build a pool of women and people of color for that role given what happened to Claudine Gay.

‘The president of Harvard is a symbol as much as anything else. It’s a very symbolic role.’

The idea of one of the Obamas – either Barack or Michelle – taking over Gay has swirled on social media since the news of her resignation earlier this month.