Sao Paulo
The pressure that the political world in the United States placed on the academic sector amid the IsraelHamas war put the spotlight on Claudine Gay, the dean of the prestigious Harvard University and the first black woman to hold the position.
More than 70 American lawmakers, most of them Republicans, called last Friday (8) that Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) fire their deans for allegedly failing to combat the what they describe as “endemic antiSemitism” “in the university environment.
The accusation gained traction after the three Harvard, the other two institutions headed by women testified before a US House of Representatives committee on the issue and refused to answer a question from a Republican “yes” or “no”. to answer congressmen about whether or not calling for genocide against the Jews violates codes of conduct.
The deans argued that such a ban must be balanced with protecting the freedom of expression of their students, faculty and other staff. And that response gave lawmakers an opportunity to call on institutions to remove them from office.
Pressure against Gay grew last Saturday (9) when Mary Elizabeth Magill, the dean of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned from her post the day before a meeting of the institution's board of directors to debate whether or not she would stay resigned in the post.
Faced with this scenario, this Monday (11) around 700 professors signed a letter to the Harvard Corporation, the highest body of the university, in which they spoke out against the possible dismissal of the dean.
According to the text, obtained by the AFP news agency, the professors “strongly demand” that “the independence of the university is defended and that the institution withstands political pressure, such as the request for the dismissal of Claudine Gay, which is contrary to the law “Harvard's Commitment to Academic Freedom.”
“Fundamentally protecting a freespirited culture in our diverse community is impossible if we allow it to be dictated by outside forces,” the teachers continued.
Since the controversial answer before the House Education Committee, Gay has attempted to retract his revocation twice. First, he made a statement on Harvard's official social media. “There are those who confuse the right to free speech with the idea that Harvard would tolerate calls for violence against Jewish students,” it said.
“I want to be clear: These calls against the Jewish community or any other religious or ethnic group have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten Jewish students will be held accountable.”
He later told the Harvard Crimson, the university's student newspaper, that he “regretted his words” when he explained that calls for genocide against Jews needed to be analyzed in their context in academic settings.
“Words are important. And when they increase fear and pain, all you can feel is regret,” he said.