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The Board of Directors of the Harvard University Alumni Association announced on Monday their unconditional support for President Claudine Gay.
Gay also received strong support from the Harvard community, which meant that his work would continue.
Gay faced calls for his removal after he failed to denounce threats of violence against Jewish students during congressional testimony last week by three university presidents. eat the goodbye the President of the University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill on Saturday.
“President Gay is the right leader to lead the University through this difficult time,” the committee wrote in a letter to academic officials. “He is considerate. He is kind. He is committed to the growth and well-being of our diverse community. We know there was frustration with his testimony this past week. President Gay acknowledged this and apologized for any pain his testimony caused—a powerful display of his honesty, determination, and courage.”
Gay apologize last week for testimony before the House committee on December 5, where he, Magill and MIT President Sally Kornbluth failed to make it clear that calls for the killing of Jews would violate their school’s rules.
Harvard has faced difficulties in combating the rise of vandalism on campus, although recent reports of protests at Penn have been considered worse. However, a growing number of members of Congress, donors and other prominent leaders have called on Gay to resign.
“One down. Two to go,” Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York written in X, formerly known as Twitter, and “two” is a reference to Gay and Kornbluth. “In the context of @Harvard, President Gay was asked 17x if calling for the genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s constitution. He spoke his truth 17x. Then the world listened.”
Stefanik, along with a group of 71 lawmakers, sent a letter to the administration of Harvard, Penn, and MIT urging them to remove their university leaders. Meanwhile, hundreds of faculty members have signed a petition in support of Gay.
Since then apologize for his words, “I’m sorry,” he said in an interview with The Harvard Crimson on Thursday. “Words matter.”
“I found what happened at the time was an extended discussion about policies and procedures,” Gay told the student newspaper. “What I should have made up my mind to do at that time was to go back to my guiding principle, which is to call for violence against our Jewish community – threats against our Jewish students – there is no place at Harvard, and will never be afraid. .”
But some major donors remain unmoved, notably Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, who has been among Gay’s most vocal critics.
“As a result of President Gay’s failure to enforce Harvard’s laws, Jewish students, faculty and others fear for their own safety as even physical abuse of students remains unpunished,” Ackman wrote in an open letter to Harvard’s Sunday Board of Trustees. “Knowing what we know now, would Harvard consider Claudine Gay for the position? The answer is definitely “No.” With this simple pattern of thinking, the board’s choice of President Gay could not have been more correct.”
Harvard is one of several academic institutions that have come under fire in recent months due to alleged protests on campus after the critical attack by Hamas on October 7 and Israel hit later in Gaza. Harvard is also among the 14 colleges is being investigated by the Ministry of Education since the attacks “for prejudice affecting common ancestry” is an umbrella term that includes both Islamophobia and antisemitism.
Although Magill resigned, it was not clear if other presidents would follow suit. MIT stands by its president: The Board of Directors of the MIT Corporation, the board of directors of MIT, give a statement last week President Sally Kornbluth said she had their “full and unreserved support.”
Gay, a political scientist whose work focuses on the relationship between politics and race, was named Harvard’s 30th president in July when he became dean of the school’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Unlike Gay, Magill was under fire for months before resigning. Donors have called for Magill’s resignation since September, when the university allowed speakers who Penn’s administration revealed had a history of making objectionable statements to participate in the “Palestine Writes Literature Festival” in on the campus. Those existing conflicts became more serious when the war between Israel and Hamas began.
Gay’s voice was also evident in his recognition of the concerns of Jewish students.
On October 7, a group of academic groups released a statement blaming the attack by Hamas on the government of Israel. The letter received a sharp condemnation from business leaders and adults, who called on the students of their groups who signed the statement to graduate. A spokesperson for the coalition later wrote in a statement that the group “strongly opposes violence against civilians – Palestinian, Israeli, or otherwise.”
Three days after the union released its letter, Gay released a statement condemning the “terrorist acts committed by Hamas” and asserting that “no group of students – even the 30 students – to speak for Harvard University or its leadership.”
In a speech to Harvard’s Jewish student organization in late October, Gay hearing he assembled an advisory group of “faculty, staff, alumni, and religious leaders from the Jewish community” who would “help us think critically and seriously about all the ways to express protest on campus.” and our culture.”
That didn’t make Gay any less vulnerable to criticism, but his willingness to respond when faced with criticism could be the determining factor in whether he eventually resigns.
Businessmen and veterans have criticized Gay and his colleagues for not taking action against the protests in their camps. Following Gay’s testimony before Congress, Ackman asked Gay, along with Magill and Kornbluth, “to resign in disgrace,” citing contempt for their testimony.
Ackman, a Harvard graduate, has also questioned the integrity and values of Gay. posted on social media platforms to show that Gay, who is the first Black woman to lead Harvard, was hired to fulfill the criteria.
In his open letter on Sunday, Ackman said Gay had done more damage to Harvard’s name than anyone else in the university’s history.
“Because of his failure to condemn the worst and most dangerous acts of terrorism the world has seen, for supporting instead of sanctioned 34 Harvard graduate schools holding Israel ‘perfect’ for Hamas’ heinous behavior, for Harvard’s own lack of enforcement of student behavior, and for other failures of leadership, President Gay unleashed an onslaught of protest and hatred on campus that is unprecedented in Harvard history,” Ackman wrote.
But criticism from the Harvard community has largely framed racism on campus as a normal issue, not a gay moral disorder. In the description announced his resignation from Harvard’s antisemitism advisory group last week after Gay’s testimony, Rabbi David Wolpe said that the opposition to the combination of beliefs at Harvard that constructs Jews as oppressors while “ valuing and denying the traditional Jewish experience … is a task more than a committee or a single university. ”
“It will not be changed by the hiring or firing of one person,” he wrote, after emphasizing that he believes Gay “is a kind and thoughtful person.”
Alumni donors – more than 1,800 of them sign an open letter to Gay and Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana – have called for concrete changes to support Jews on campus and warned that they will withdraw their donations if those steps are not taken.
As of Monday morning, more than 700 Harvard professors had signed a petition urging school officials to oppose calls for Gay’s removal. According to 2023 Harvard annual reportThe university has 1,068 full-time faculty and 403 part-time faculty.
“We, the undersigned faculty, urge you in the strongest possible way to protect the independence of the university and to oppose political activities contrary to Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom, to including calls for the removal of President Claudine Gay,” the petition said. said. “The important work of protecting a culture of free inquiry in our diverse community cannot continue if we allow its form to be dictated by external forces.”
Individually Teachers have also taken to social media in recent days to show their support for Gay.
“The anti-Semitism at @harvard is real … but this issue is common, and calling for President Gay to resign is wrong,” computer science professor Boaz Barak said in a post. on X.
“I really hope we don’t let donors and politicians dictate who leads our school,” wrote Jason Furman, a professor of economic policy and former chairman of the Advisory Council. of the Obama administration, adding that Gay condemned the call for assassination before, during and after the congressional hearings.
Former Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier said in a post on X: “I hope that President Gay’s appreciation of the fundamental issues will rise to a new level, and emerge as a set of ways to strengthen the @Harvard community as a place for free speech, academic freedom and civil discourse.”
CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report.