Embattled Harvard University president to stay after antisemitism row

Harvard President Claudine Gay was engulfed by criticism following her comments at a US hearing on antisemitism

Pressure on Gay mounted after University of Pennsylvania’s president stepped down in the wake of her responses

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President of Harvard University, Claudine Gay. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:24am, 13 Dec 2023

Harvard University’s president, under fire over testimony she gave about antisemitism on campus, will remain in her job after a meeting of the institution’s governing body issued a statement backing her.

Claudine Gay has been engulfed by criticism after she declined to say unequivocally whether calling for genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s code of conduct as she testified before Congress alongside the heads of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.

“It depends on the context,” she told lawmakers in one tense exchange.

The Harvard Corporation, one of the university’s two governing boards, said in a statement on Tuesday: “we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University”.

Harvard President Claudine Gay, left, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth at last week’s hearing. Photo: AP

But the body did criticise the university’s initial response to the Hamas October 7 attacks that Israel said killed 1,200 people inside Israel and saw around 240 people taken hostage.