Harvard board stands behind president, shocks the world
Harvard doubled down on its commitment to President Claudine Gay, condemning calls for violence and correcting President Gay’s confusing, double-standard testimony before Congress. Her testimony after being questioned 17 times by NY Rep Elise Stefanik failed to condemn open calls for violence against the Jewish people as against the school’s policy. Gay referenced that a call for violence would need to be context-specific to be against school policy. This testimony corroborated with the other three universities that testified before Congress including Harvard, MIT, and UPenn. Each University failed to unequivocally condemn calls for violence and genocide against the Jewish people. Rep Stefanik said in no uncertain terms that the answers were unacceptable and all three of the leaders should immediately resign. MIT also announced they would be standing behind their school’s president.
“In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay. At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated,” the Harvard board’s statement reads.
Interestingly, Harvard was ranked last among all Universities for free speech rankings and has gone so far as to promote and train students in school policy around using someone’s preferred pronoun. Yet, President Gay and the other Universities failed to reference a policy calling for the killing of a people group. Instead, the University presidents attempted to take the view of 1st Amendment protected free speech, to no avail.
Harvard’s letter continued, “Calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values. President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the University’s fight against antisemitism.”
