Harvard President Claudine Gay keeps job following disastrous testimony: Report
Eden Villalovas
Video Embed
Harvard President Claudine Gay will stay in her role following a wave of backlash from last week’s congressional hearing on campus antisemitism, the Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, reported Tuesday morning.
Members of Harvard University’s faculty sent a letter to the Harvard Corporation, the university’s governing body, urged the university not to oust president in an hourslong meeting Monday. The Harvard Corporation is expected to announce their support of Gay keeping her post on Tuesday.
HOW THE AI BOOM COULD BOOST ENERGY USE AND CARBON EMISSIONS
More than 700 Harvard faculty members signed a petition backing Gay, showing their support for the embattled president in a letter to the Harvard Corporation.
Furthermore, The Harvard Alumni Association Executive Committee said it “unanimously and unequivocally supports” Gay keeping her job, according to a letter the committee sent to university officials, obtained by NBC News.
Gay faced public outrage, along with the University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who resigned on Saturday, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, after all three appeared before Congress to provide testimony over their respective university’s responses to antisemitism on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s hearing one week ago lasted nearly six hours, and the three elite university president’s faced a heated line from Congressional Republicans. Gay was asked multiple times whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard’s code of conduct.
“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment?” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) asked of Gay, and posed the same question to Magil and Kornbluth.
“It can be, depending on the context,” Gay responded.
“What’s the context?” Stefanik asked.
“Targeted at an individual,” Gay said.
Stefanik continued to pressure Gay to give a yes or no answer on if calling for the genocide of Jews is in violation of Harvard’s policies.
“Antisemitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation. That is actionable conduct, and we do take action,” Gay said, while Stefanik called for her resignation, adding “these are unacceptable answers across the board.”
Following the hearing, Gay issued a statement clarifying her remarks, saying “calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile” and they “have no place at Harvard.”
Still, Gay’s remarks had immediate consequences as thousands of donors threatened to withhold donations unless Harvard took action to address antisemitism. A Republican-led congressional committee launched a formal investigation into antisemitism at Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Gay later issued an apology through an interview with the Harvard Crimson, telling the student newspaper, “I am sorry. Words matter.”
“When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret,” Gay said in an interview published Friday.