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- President Claudine Gay is staying on at Harvard despite calls for her resignation over her response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
- Tension has mounted on campus since October and Gay has been accused of failing to condemn antisemitism.
- The Harvard Corporation said that it still saw Gay as the "right leader."
Harvard confirmed on Tuesday morning that its president, Claudine Gay, would stay in post despite intense criticism from some students, alumni, and politicians over what they say is the Ivy League college's failure to condemn antisemitism.
Tension has mounted on campus since attacks between Israel and Palestine started in October. Gay, as a figurehead for the university, has been accused of failing to condemn antisemitism.
The Harvard Corporation, one of its governing boards, said in a statement Tuesday that despite the controversies, it still saw Gay as the "right leader."
The statement follows a congressional hearing last Wednesday in which Gay and two other Ivy League leaders, MIT's president Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania's president Elizabeth Magill, were questioned on how they responded to antisemitism on campus following the eruption of conflict in Israel and Gaza. Magill resigned last week.
While confirming its backing for Gay, Harvard's statement acknowledged some failings in its handling of its response to the events in the Middle East and the reaction on campus. It also acknowledged accusations of plagiarism in Gay's previous academic work.
Here's the full statement released on Tuesday, signed by the fellows of the Harvard Corporation.
Dear Members of the Harvard Community, 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. So many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas's brutal terrorist attack, and the University's initial statement should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation. 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. With regard to President Gay's academic writings, the University became aware in late October of allegations regarding three articles. At President Gay's request, the Fellows promptly initiated an independent review by distinguished political scientists and conducted a review of her published work. On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation. While the analysis found no violation of Harvard's standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications. 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. Harvard's mission is advancing knowledge, research, and discovery that will help address deep societal issues and promote constructive discourse, and we are confident that President Gay will lead Harvard forward toward accomplishing this vital work.