Claudine Gay will remain Harvard president with the full support of the Ivy League college's governing body, the student newspaper reported.
The Harvard Crimson reported early Tuesday that the Harvard Corporation – the school's highest governing body – supported Gay despite calls for his resignation following her testimony before Congress about anti-Semitism on campus.
A statement confirming the news is expected to be released later this morning, the newspaper reported.
Billionaire hedge fund alum Bill Ackman, who has led a campaign to oust Gay, claimed Harvard's board didn't want to be seen doing koto to him.
Gay, the school's first Black president, was appointed to the position in July 2023. She sparked outrage at a congressional hearing last week when she said it depended on the context whether calls for genocide against Harvard's Jews constituted harassment and violated the rules.
Claudine Gay, pictured during her disastrous appearance before Congress on Dec. 5, will remain Harvard president, it was reported early Tuesday
A billboard at Harvard University called for the removal of President Claudine Gay on Sunday
She was then forced to apologize after the hearing, which cost the University of Pennsylvania's Liz Magill her job for a similar reaction.
Gay, who on Monday dismissed reports that she was a plagiarist, initially sparked outrage with a muted condemnation of the crime after the Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel.
She was subsequently forced to issue two apologies, in which she made even clearer condemnations of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group behind the atrocities.
Gay has been criticized for taking a free-speech stance on hatred of Jews on a campus recently considered the most censored in the United States.
New students are warned that not using a person's required pronoun or being “fatphobic” may result in violence.
Gay was also instrumental in prosecuting a black Harvard Law School professor who was fired from his post after defending Harvey Weinstein.
Ronald Sullivan says he was fired from his job in 2019 after agreeing to represent the perverted movie mogul. He accused Gay and others of fabricating a false story about him as a bully to get rid of him.
Sullivan said, “The actions were cowardly and cowardly and Dean Gay and Dean Khurana have simply consistently and repeatedly lied to the student body and they know better.”
Billionaire hedge fund alum Bill Ackman, who has led a campaign to oust Gay, claimed Harvard's board didn't want to be seen doing koto to him
Two reporters have now told me that this is one of the factors that has made it difficult for the US @Harvard The reason they fired Gay was because they were afraid it would look like they were kowtowing to me. https://t.co/QrgFHUVEJh
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 12, 2023
“Their problem was that I portrayed an unpopular person…They said it to my face and other senior members said it to my face, and then they turned around and lied to the student body.”
Ackman and others have since begun withdrawing donations from the college.
Despite the backlash, Gay maintained institutional support at Harvard.
According to The Harvard Crimson, the executive committee of the Harvard University Alumni Association announced its full support for the scholarship recipient on Monday and called on the school's governing bodies to publicly support her.
The group wrote: “President Gay is the right leader to lead the university during this challenging time… She is thoughtful.” She is kind. She is fiercely committed to the growth and well-being of our very diverse community. We recognize that her statement last week was a disappointment. President Gay acknowledged this and apologized for the pain her statement caused – a powerful demonstration of her integrity, determination and courage.”
Bill Ackman responded to the alumni group's letter by saying, “How did the association support President Gay without first consulting its members?”
In addition, more than 700 Harvard faculty members signed a letter in support of Gay, calling on the school to resist calls to fire her and calling the attacks against her “politically motivated.”
Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe, who previously called Gay's statement “deeply disturbing,” told CNN he signed the petition because “as soon as external pressure, whether from ultra-wealthy donors or from politicians pursuing their ideological goals, overrides universities' internal decision-making processes. “We are on the road to tyranny.”
Former Winthrop House faculty dean Ronald Sullivan accused Gay of firing him from his role because of his work on Harvey Weinstein's defense team
Gay was accused of using near-literal language from author Carol Swain
Harvard professor Lawrence Lobo, one of the scientists who were allegedly plagiarized by Gay, told the Boston Globe, “I'm not concerned because our work was specifically acknowledged.”
The groups' support for Gay followed an open letter from Ackman to Harvard, his alma mater, in which he accused Gay of “doing more damage to Harvard's reputation than anyone else in the university's history.”
Ackman claimed, “ODIBB’s actions have resulted in favoritism and favoritism toward certain racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ groups at the expense of other groups, and have made some members of the Harvard community feel included at the expense of others who are excluded .”
The billionaire was accused of racism when he claimed Gay was only hired because she fit the DEO profile.
In his most recent open letter, he said: “I was recently accused of being a racist by several bloggers and other commentators when I announced that the board did not consider a candidate for the office in the search process that led to the hiring of President Gay would pull.” President who did not meet the DEI criteria.
“I have now confirmed from multiple sources that the search committee that led to the appointment of President Gay excluded candidates who were not DEI eligible from the process.”
has not independently verified Ackman's claim.
Ackman also shared bloggers Christopher Rufo and Christopher Brunet's plagiarism allegations against Gay, who claim the Harvard leader saved identical wording for her 1997 dissertation.
The bloggers accuse Gay of using near-literal language from authors Lawrence Bobo and Franklin Gilliam and scholar Carol Swain.
Swain responded to the claims on Twitter, writing: “I just learned about the analysis of #ClaudineGay's work and the plagiarism allegations.” I have not read the articles or books in question. However, two things come to mind: Imitation is said to be the highest form of flattery and secondly, Dr. Gay's committee, assessors and colleagues must uncover these alleged transgressions.'
Elise Stefanik, a Republican who represents New York, criticized the three university presidents last week
UPenn President Liz Magill was forced to resign Saturday after her disastrous statement
Also MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth has been criticized for her school's response to protests. It also failed to outwardly condemn calls for genocide against the Jews, but has survived the backlash
The author added: “I would like to know if [Gay] quoted me in their published work on districting and representation. This would have had a far greater impact on my career in the long term. “In science, we are rewarded based on citations.”
Responding to the news that Gay would keep her job, billionaire Elon Musk wrote: #DefundHarvard'
Gay, Magill MIT employee Sally Kornblith drew intense national backlash after testifying before the Republican-led House Education and Workforce Committee on Tuesday. Donors, alumni and members of Congress from both parties have called for her resignation.
The issue at issue was whether calling for genocide against the Jews would violate the university code of conduct. At Tuesday's hearing, Gay said it depends on the context, adding that when “speech turns into behavior, that violates our policies.”
Gay told The Crimson she was sorry and said she was “engaged in what had by that point become a prolonged, combative exchange over policies and procedures.”
“In that moment, I should have had the presence of mind necessary to return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats against our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard and will never go unchallenged,” Gay said.