Harvard University president to stay after controversy over antisemitism testimony
Cambridge, Massachusetts - Harvard University's president, under fire over testimony she gave about antisemitism on campus, will remain in her job after a meeting of the institution's governing body issued a statement backing her on Tuesday amid Israel's continued assault on Gaza.
Claudine Gay has been engulfed by criticism after she declined to say unequivocally whether calling for genocide of Jews violated Harvard's code of conduct as she testified before Congress alongside the heads of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.
"It depends on the context," she told lawmakers in one tense exchange.
"Rules around bullying and harassment are quite specific. And if the context in which that language is used amounts to bullying and harassment then we take action against it," she said during the hearing.
The hearing came in response to powerful demonstrations in support of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Palestinian liberation at universities across the country, including at Harvard. While opponents have claimed that the actions call for a genocide against Jewish people, the vast majority of protesters have said that their activism is motivated by the desire for peace and an end to Israeli settler-colonial violence.
The Harvard Corporation, one of the university's two governing boards, said in a statement, "we today reaffirm our support for President Gay's continued leadership of Harvard University."
But the body did criticize the university's initial response to the Hamas October 7 attacks that Israel said killed 1,200 people and saw around 240 people taken hostage.
Israel's ongoing genocidal offensive – its latest assault in the decades-long occupation of Palestine – has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed at least 18,200 people, mostly women and children, according to the local health ministry.
Claudine Gay faces pressure to resign as Harvard faculty back her presidency
In the United States, the controversy has come amid a rise in reports of attacks and violent rhetoric targeting Jews, Palestinians, and Muslims, including at universities, since October.
"So many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas's brutal terrorist attack, and the University's initial statement should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation," the corporation said.
"Calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values."
"President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony."
University of Pennsylvania's president Liz Magill resigned in the wake of her responses to Congress, and pressure had mounted on Gay both inside and outside of Harvard to follow suit.
More than 70 lawmakers including two Democrats called for her resignation, while a number of high-profile Harvard alumni and donors have called for her departure.
In excess of 700 Harvard faculty members signed a letter supporting Gay.
Claudine Gay named Harvard's first Black president
Gay (53) was born in New York to Haitian immigrants and is a professor of political science who in July became the first Black president of 368-year-old Harvard University, in Cambridge, outside Boston.
Ryan Enos, professor of government at Harvard, said ahead of the corporation's endorsement of Gay that "the reason that she has been pressured to resign is because of political pressure from politicians trying to shape universities in their image."
"One of the bedrocks of a free society, one of the most important things for a free society, is that universities are not run by the state."
Former student and multi-million-dollar donor Bill Ackman claimed in a letter to Harvard's governing boards that "President Gay's failures have led to billions of dollars of cancelled, paused, and withdrawn donations to the university."
Ackman also went on a tirade against the university's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and practices, complaining that "straight white male students" do not receive benefits of the office.
He also sparked accusations of anti-Black racism for suggesting that Gay would not have gotten her position as president had she not met DEI criteria.
Cover photo: REUTERS