Hundreds of teachers Harvard University signed a letter showing support for their president, who faces ouster after she and other university leaders were criticized for their comments during a congressional hearing on anti-Semitism.
On Sunday afternoon, more than 500 faculty members signed the letter to the Harvard Corporation urging it to resist calls to strip Claudine Gay as president of the university. The Corporation, which is the principal governing body of Harvard, met on Sunday with the university supervisory board, according to The Harvard Crimson.
On Tuesday, Gay joined University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth. testify at a congressional hearing on anti-Semitism on campus. During a heated exchange between the presidents and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican asked whether calls for genocide of Jews would violate their universities’ codes of conduct.
Whether such calls violate university policies “depends on the context,” Gay responded. “When that results in conduct that amounts to intimidation, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct, and we take action.”
“I sought to confront hatred while preserving freedom of expression,” she said. “It’s hard work and I know I haven’t always been successful. »
Magill and Kornbluth gave similar answers to Stefanik: leading the exchange to go viral and provoke widespread backlash against soft responses from presidents. The three college presidents anti-Semitism has been repeatedly condemned during the hearing, but their remarks on whether certain pro-Palestinian phrases could be characterized as harassment of Jewish people nonetheless sparked outrage.
Friday, Stefanik published a letter signed by 70 members of Congress, most of them Republicans, who called for the removal of the college’s leaders. Magill apologized for his comments and resigned from his position SATURDAY.
MIT Board of Trustees issued a statement Thursday, announcing its “full and unqualified support” for Kornbluth, who the board said “has done an excellent job leading our community, including combatting anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hatred, which we totally reject at MIT.”
Gays apologized for her testimony Friday, saying “words matter.”
“I was caught up in what had become by that time, a prolonged and combative exchange over policies and procedures,” she told the Crimson.
“What I should have had the presence of mind to do at that moment was to return to my guiding truth, which was that the calls for violence against our Jewish community – the threats against our Jewish students – have no place at Harvard and will never go unanswered. .”
The letter signed by Harvard professors calls on the Society to “defend the independence of the university” and “resist political pressures” that do not align with the college’s commitment to academic freedom.
“The crucial work of defending a culture of free inquiry in our diverse community cannot continue if we allow its shape to be dictated by outside forces,” reads the letter obtained by the Crimson. and the Boston Globe.
Stefanik, who previously sponsored legislation to protect free speech on college campuses, tweeted in response to the letter that signatories made “incredibly selfish claims.”
“What a sad and deplorable state of affairs for the faculty and administration of our most “esteemed” institutions of higher education when instead of focusing on protecting the safety and security of Jewish students in the face of historic anti-Semitic attacks, with a very clear condemnation of calls for genocide of Jews, they instead focus obsessively on their dislike and rightful contempt for those with opposing political beliefs,” the lawmaker continued.
Jewish, Muslim and Arab Americans are facing heightened tensions amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Since the attack, the Ministry of Education has opened an investigation at several universities – including Harvard, UPenn and MIT – following reports of an increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents.
Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee said calls for Gay’s ouster are based on a misinterpretation of pro-Palestinian students’ views on violence and songs supporting Palestinian liberation. During questioning at the hearing, Stefanik made clear that she equated such chants with calls for the genocide of Jews.
“The voices calling for his resignation are the same who supported doxxing, targeting and harassment members of the Palestinian, Black, Brown, Arab, Muslim and Jewish communities speaking out about the genocide in Gaza,” the committee told the Globe.
Jason Furman, professor of economics at Harvard, defended Gay on Twitter while adding that the university must do more to combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
“I really hope we don’t let donors and politicians dictate who runs our school,” he wrote. “Claudine Gay denounced the call for genocide before the hearing. She denounced him at the hearing. And she denounced him after the hearing.
IfNotNow, an American Jewish group that focuses on Palestinian liberation, said Monday that the hearing “was not a serious discussion of anti-Semitism” and served as a “political stunt designed” to appease critics of the Israeli government.
“It is shocking that members of Congress are choosing to focus their hearings, resolutions and bills on student activists who have little influence in government rather than holding powerful Israeli officials accountable for more than 17,000 deaths civilians in Gaza,” spokesperson Eva Borgwardt said in a statement. , adding that Stefanik herself endorsed the anti-Semitic “great replacement” theory.
“The silence of Democrats and college presidents and the refusal to provide any context for why students might be angry about the war in Gaza helped Republicans and war hawks achieve their primary goal,” he said. continued Borgwardt. “Do everything we can to get Americans to look away from the bombs being dropped on tens of thousands of civilians – which are made in the United States and paid for with our tax dollars.”