Despite a disastrous hearing on the Hill last week in which she failed to strongly condemn antisemitism on the Harvard campus, President Claudine Gay will remain in her position at the Ivy League university.
The Harvard Corporation — the university’s highest governing body — made its announcement Tuesday.
“As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” the group said in a statement.
From The New York Post:
It acknowledged that the university should have released an “immediate, direct and unequivocal condemnation” of Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7, noting “Calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values” — in apparent contrast to Gay’s testimony last week.
“President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the university’s fight against antisemitism,” the group wrote.
Meanwhile, Harvard is losing more than a billion in donations due to Gay’s feckless testimony.
“President Gay’s failures have led to billions of dollars of canceled, paused, and withdrawn donations to the university,” billionaire Bill Ackman wrote. “I am personally aware of more than a billion dollars of terminated donations from a small group of Harvard’s most generous Jewish and non-Jewish alumni.”
Please see my letter today to @Harvard governing boards of directors:
December 10, 2023
Dear Members of the Harvard Governing Boards:
In her short tenure as President, Claudine Gay has done more damage to the reputation of Harvard University than any individual in our nearly…
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 10, 2023