The Harvard/Penn Capitol Capitol Crisis: Students, Faculty and Donors Against Antisemitism, Islamophobia and Other Forms of Hate
But not everyone is in favor of their departure. A growing number of students and faculty oppose the calls for the presidents to go, arguing that such measures go against school values around independence and freedom speech.
Controversy over last week’s congressional hearing regarding antisemitism on college campuses continues to play out at Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.
Over the weekend, Penn President Liz Magill resigned after calls mounted for her removal among students, faculty and donors. Will Harvard’s president step down amid intense pressure, or will it be left to Claudine Gay?
Critics said the Harvard president’s answers fell short and cast doubt on whether Gay was equipped to protect the university’s Jewish students at a moment of rising antisemitism stemming from the war in Gaza. In an interview with The Harvard Crimson two days after the hearing, Gay apologized for her remarks.
He told us that it wasn’t the first incident. “Despite the fact that these incidents have been brought to the attention of the president of Harvard and the other presidents, there’s been no action.”
A few weeks ago, 74 members of Congress signed a letter urging the governing boards of Harvard, Penn and MIT to remove their presidents. Congress is investigating policies and procedures.
In an open letter on Sunday night to Harvard’s governing boards, alum and billionaire investor Bill Ackman also accused of Gay damaging the university’s reputation.
“The presidents of MIT, Harvard and UPenn were under fire in a tense, polarized Congressional hearing. That’s a unique and different environment for most college presidents,” said Jason Shepard, a communications professor at California State University, Fullerton.
That’s not only a challenge to navigate for peers, but also for university presidents, who are balancing the interests of students, faculty, donors and even lawmakers.
Angus Johnston, a historian of American student activism at Hostos Community College of The City University of New York, said no issue in recent decades has divided student activists within the same school like the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“She has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, all of which we reject utterly at MIT,” the MIT Corporation wrote on Thursday. “She has our full and unreserved support.”
Alison Frank Johnson is a history professor at Harvard who co-authored the letter titled “Critical work of defending a culture of free inquiry in our diverse community cannot proceed if we let its shape be dictated by outside forces.”
Despite the backlash, Gay has also received widespread support from students and faculty members. Hundreds of faculty members had signed a letter imploring Harvard to keep Gay as president. The letter warned that such political pressure for Gay’s removal is “at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom.”
“President Gay is the right leader to guide the University during this challenging time,” the committee wrote. We are confident that President Gay will address hate and antisemitism effectively.
“Ten-second snippets of viral videos can move like wildfire, and this sets up a whole new world for university presidents to effectively communicate with a broad and diverse range of constituencies,” Shepard said.
Why does Harvard care about the Jewish community? A response to a Crimson ominously saying “No, no, no!”
“Knowing what we know now, would Harvard consider Claudine Gay for the position? The answer is definitively ‘No,’” he wrote, adding that the decision of whether to fire Gay “could not be more straightforward.
Earlier on Sunday, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who posed the question around the schools’ code of conduct, ominously wrote on X: “One down. Two to go.” She asked Harvard andMIT to do the right thing. The world is watching.
Gay was also rebuked by pro-Palestinian faculty members after she condemned the chant “from the river to the sea,” which has been evoked by militant groups like Hamas to call for the erasure of Israel.
“I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures,” she said to the Crimson. “What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged.”
Following the outrage, Gay said in a video that she wholeheartedly condemned the “barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.” She emphasized freedom of speech and grace.