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Four prominent lawmakers launched a resolution Tuesday calling for University President Claudine Gay to resign following her congressional testimony about the protest. , as Harvard’s top management announced earlier that day that he would remain in his role.
The resolution also called for the resignation of MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth, who also testified in court. University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill resigned from her role on Saturday due to objections to her testimony.
Representative Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (RN.Y.) – the fourth House Republican – authored the resolution, which was sponsored by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Rep. Josh Gottheimer (DN. .J.), and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.).
The resolution came after a week of intense scrutiny of Gay following the court hearing, with fresh allegations of fraud and calls for his resignation. alumni, donors, and more than 70 politicians.
However, on Tuesday morning, the Harvard Corporation – the highest governing body of the University – broke its silence, expressing unanimous support for Gay to remain in office. The MIT administration also issued a statement in Kornbluth’s “full and unreserved support” Thursday.
The resolution “strongly condemns the rise of anti-Semitism on university campuses across the country” and Magill, Gay, and Kornbluth for their “failure to state clearly that the need to kill Jews is a disturbance and violation of the rules of their organization.”
The House is expected to vote later this week, according to Stefanik’s office.
“This is not a matter of bias but a question of transparency,” he said in a press release on Tuesday.
Harvard spokesman Jonathan L. Swain declined to comment on the resolution. MIT spokeswoman Kimberly C. Allen wrote in a statement that the university and Kornbluth “reject the protest in all its forms.”
“Our senior leaders are working to remain focused on keeping the campus safe and operational,” Allen wrote.
Gay, Magill, and Kornbluth were widely criticized for their testimony last week, especially facing a lot of backlash over their answers to Stefanik’s question about whether the call for the killing of Jews was will violate the rules of their university.
In the press release, Scalise said Stefanik’s question during the trial “wasn’t a difficult question — in fact, it was probably the easiest question.”
“The abject failure of these presidents to protect even the most important of human rights – the right to life – against false pretense has shown the good bankruptcy of these elite universities in the world,” Scalise said in the announcement.
Two days after Gay’s testimony, the House Committee on Education and Labor launched a congressional investigation into anti-Semitism on Harvard’s campus. Gay also apologized for his comments during an interview with the Crimson.
“These Ivy League university presidents asked a softball question: ‘Does calling for the genocide of Jews count as harassment under their school’s bylaws?'” Moskowitz said in the press release. “That’s not a trick question, and it really pisses me off that these youth leaders will try to mislead with some nonsense about ‘it depends on the context.’ “
“Leave the Jews for any other oppressed minority group and they would not have given that answer. They failed the exam, and they are just like unrefined students,” he added.
—Staff writer Azusa M. Lippit can be reached at azusa.lippit@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @azusalippit or on threads @azusalippit.
—Staff writer Sophia C. Scott can be reached at sophia.scott@thecrimson.com. Follow him at X on @ScottSophia_.