The president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, will continue in office, according to what the governing board of the institution announced this Tuesday. Her confirmation comes after the scandal that arose over her responses in a congressional committee last week, where she did not respond with a resounding statement about the need to repress and condemn calls for Jewish genocide in the campus. The resolution challenges donors and, above all, legislators who opted for the resignation.
Gay was on a tightrope after appearing in a House committee alongside the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, and the president of MIT, Sally Kornbluth. All three made the mistake of responding lukewarmly, depending on the context, they said, to the question about encouraging Jewish genocide in their universities. Magill resigned on Saturday. She was the first victim.
The ultra-conservative legislator Elise Stefanik, who was the one who formulated the issue, issued a message that same Saturday. “One has fallen, the other two are on the way,” she said. Her foresight has failed. Kornbluth already achieved the support of MIT and now Gay has achieved it.
Board members met Monday and held deliberation late into the night. Gay is the second woman to hold the position and the first African American. Some millionaire donors and some 1,000 teachers and students asked for her head. But a similar group, especially black students, replied that the interference of political powers, in an alliance between Republicans and Democrats, including the White House, in the governance and independence of the university was intolerable.
“As members of the Harvard corporation today we reaffirm our support for President Gay to continue her leadership,” said the statement issued by the governing board. The statement was signed by all the members except the interested party herself. “Our long deliberation underscores our confidence in the president and that her mandate will help our community heal and address the important social issues we face,” the text added.
The statement also incorporates a reprimand. The board recognizes that Gay made mistakes early on in the current crisis in the Middle East in his reaction to the terrorist attack launched by Hamas in Israel. “Many people have suffered pain and harm from Hamas' brutal attack and the university's initial response should have immediately, directly and unequivocally expressed condemnation,” the statement stressed.
Now Gay faces the challenge of regaining the trust of the Harvard community, which has been shaken by the conflict unleashed by Hamas and the disproportionate retaliation by the Israeli army. She has had to juggle to conform to both. After severe criticism from influential figures, such as Lawrence Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of the institution, Gay issued a harsh statement of condemnation, but it was not enough to appease the criticism and fear of students and former Harvard students.
Nor was it the one he launched when he saw all the discomfort that his participation in the Congressional commission had generated. Regardless of disagreements between both parties, Republicans have seen in this matter the opportunity to attack elite universities because they consider that they educate in values that go against the conservative sense. Their goal is to cancel the presidents, whom they accuse of canceling the conservatives' speech.
