Claudine Gay, the embattled president of Harvard, will remain in the role, the university’s highest governing body announced Tuesday, following almost a week of outcry over testimony she gave at a congressional hearing on antisemitism.
“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 board said in a statement signed by the college’s fellows.
“President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the University’s fight against antisemitism,” the statement said.
Gay became the university’s presidency less than six months ago. She is the second woman and first Black person to lead the Ivy League institution.
Gay and her counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology drew fierce criticism after they appeared at a House hearing last week and seemed to dodge a question of whether students calling for the genocide of Jews should be punished.
In a contentious exchange with Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Gay said “that type of speech is personally abhorrent to me” and “at odds with the values of Harvard.”
Stefanik then pressed Gay: “Can you not say here that it is against the code of conduct at Harvard?”
Gay did not answer directly, saying in part: “We embrace a commitment to free expression even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful — it’s when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying, harassment, intimidation.”
In an interview with the Harvard Crimson student newspaper published Friday, Gay apologized for her remarks and said in part: “I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures.”
“I…
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