LANSING – Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Wednesday he will withdraw from a planned Harvard fellowship after a social media backlash and email and petition campaign opposing the appointment.

Douglas Elmendorf, the dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, which offered Snyder the fellowship, sent an email to the school community saying both "we and he now believe that having him on campus would not enhance education here in the ways we intended."

Snyder said on Twitter: "I have informed the Harvard Kennedy School that I am turning down its offer" to serve as a senior research fellow.

"It would have been exciting to share my experiences, both positive and negative; our current political environment and its lack of civility makes this too disruptive. I wish them the best."

News of the yearlong appointment with the school’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government sparked outrage over the weekend from critics who cited Snyder's role in the Flint drinking water crisis.

More:Harvard's appointment of former Gov. Rick Snyder sparks social media backlash

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Among those speaking out against the appointment were Piper Kerman, author of “Orange is the New Black,” Flint activist Mari Copeny, known as “Little Miss Flint,” and the magazine Current Affairs.

Elmendorf's office released an email he sent out Wednesday that said the school "will continue to look for ways to learn from and address failures of government in Flint and elsewhere."

"The people of Flint, Michigan — and especially low-income black residents — have suffered acutely because of their poisonous water supply, and I have been deeply moved by the personal and thoughtful messages I have received from people in Flint," Elmendorf said in the email.

"I believe the Kennedy School needs to study both failures and successes of government, and we anticipated that students would have learned from engaging with and questioning Gov. Snyder about his consequential role in decisions regarding Flint and many other issues during his eight years in office."

But the school now sees things differently, he said.

Snyder was quoted as accepting the appointment in the school's Friday announcement, with the fellowship scheduled to begin last Monday.

In announcing the appointment, the school said the Republican would share his "expertise in management, public policy and promoting civility."

Snyder was governor of Michigan from 2011 through 2018.

Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014, after a state-appointed emergency manager, as a cost-cutting move, switched the city's drinking water supply from Lake Huron water treated in Detroit to Flint River water treated at the city's drinking water plant.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has admitted a mistake in failing to require the addition of corrosion control chemicals as part of the treatment process. Lead leached into the drinking water from pipes, joints and fixtures, resulting in a spike in lead levels in Flint children.

The water switch also has been linked to outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease, connected with the deaths of 12 people.

The liberal group Progress Michigan said the fellowship never should have been offered.

"The backlash Snyder and Harvard faced over the fellowship wasn’t a ‘lack of civility’ — it was people speaking truth to power and holding Snyder accountable for the myriad of problems he and his corporate donors created for Michigan and communities across this state," the group's executive director, Lonnie Scott, said in a news release.

"If Rick Snyder is so concerned about so-called civility, then he should get the same amount of civility he showed the people of Flint: none.”

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.