At Harvard, campaign to oust president Claudine Gay gathers strength

Congressional testimony last week by Harvard President Claudine Gay has prompted many to call for her resignation. But a growing number of faculty members say they support her.

Dr Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Capitol Hill. Picture: AFP.

The governing board at Harvard University was scheduled to meet Monday to discuss calls for removing the school’s president as pressure mounted from critics following comments she made last week before Congress about antisemitism on campus.

The congressional testimony last week by Claudine Gay has prompted donors and conservative lawmakers to call for her to step down in the wake of the resignation of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill on Saturday. Both women, along with the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drew sharp criticism for their responses to Washington lawmakers during a five-hour hearing.

When asked by New York Republican Elise Stefanik whether “calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no?” Gay demurred, saying the answer depended on the context.

The Harvard community appears roughly split on Gay’s tenure. A letter signed by hundreds of alumni as well as some students and a few dozen faculty and staff has called for her to step down. The letter says Gay “selectively applies the principles of free speech to protect certain groups over others.” On Dec. 8, 74 members of Congress signed a letter urging the schools to remove all three presidents.

Alumni and donors - including Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund chief executive - have expressed their frustration with Gay’s conduct. On Sunday, Ackman sent a letter to the school’s governing body.

“As a result of President Gay’s failure to enforce Harvard’s own rules, Jewish students, faculty and others are fearful for their own safety as even the physical abuse of students remains unpunished,” Ackman wrote.

Across campus on Monday, a statement in support of Gay was also gathering momentum. In a separate letter, more than 700 faculty said they opposed her ouster as of Monday afternoon.

“We, the undersigned faculty, urge you in the strongest possible terms to defend the independence of the university and to resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom, including calls for the removal of President Claudine Gay,” read the short letter directed to the Harvard Corporation board.

A Harvard representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Gay, who took office six months ago, has already twice drawn sharp criticism in connection with Harvard’s response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas. She was widely criticized for her response to the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, and again last week after she appeared to equivocate when asked at the House hearing if calling for the genocide of Jews was protected speech on Harvard campus.

Gay, the university’s first Black president, apologized to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper last week for her remarks.

“I am sorry,” Gay said in an interview with the Crimson last week. “Words matter.” On Sunday, the Crimson asked Penny S. Pritzker, Harvard Corporation’s senior fellow if she would ask Gay to step down. The paper reported that Pritzker didn’t answer.

Last month, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights added Harvard to the list of schools the agency is investigating as part of a federal crackdown on race- and religious-based harassment since the start of the conflict in Gaza.

Harvard is one of several institutions to come under attack by critics who say administrators haven’t done enough to protect Jewish students from antisemitism.

But some free speech groups and faculty members have defended the administrators’ comments.

Benjamin Eidelson, a professor at Harvard Law School who signed the faculty letter, said that he believes Gay’s comments have been misinterpreted and misused since she repeatedly condemned antisemitism at the Congressional hearing.

“It is a politically motivated effort to make the university operate by the standards that certain donors and opportunistic politicians think that we should, rather than the intellectual values that define the institution,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal