Harvard academics are rallying around university president Claudine Gay

December 10 (Reuters) – Hundreds of students at Harvard University on Sunday signed a petition asking the school’s administration not to give in to the political process of firing the school’s president because of his testimony of the Congress regarding the protest in the campus.

A short petition was signed by at least 570 professors and was presented on Sunday evening to the 13-member Harvard Corporation, which has the power to fire the president of the university, Claudine Gay. Many professors indicated that they also wanted to sign, according to the author of the petition.

Gay pressure increased over the weekend, when University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned on Saturday.

Gay, Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth testified before a US House of Representatives committee last week about the rise in protests on college campuses after the Israel-Hamas war in October .

The three declined to give a definitive “yes” or “no” answer to Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s question about whether calling for the killing of Jews would violate their school’s policy on pressure and stress, saying that they should balance it for free. speech protection.

More than 70 American lawmakers have signed a letter demanding the management of the three universities to remove the presidents, citing dissatisfaction with their testimony.

But Alison Frank Johnson, a Harvard history professor and author of the petition presented to the school’s organization, rejected the political call for Gay’s removal.

“I get the feeling that many people don’t know how much support he had, as a scholar, colleague, and administrator, in the university – including people who disagreed with him. sometimes,” Frank Johnson wrote in an email. “We don’t want to lose him because of politics.”

Frank Johnson would not give the language of the request, but he confirmed that he asked the Harvard Corporation “not to bend to politics, including pressure to remove the president.”

Jewish students, families and adults have accused schools of condoning protests, particularly in light of statements by Palestinian protesters since the Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200. That attack triggered a massive Israeli offensive that killed more than 17,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

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