Claudine Gay will remain as Harvard president with the full support of the Ivy League college’s governing body, the university’s board announced in a statement on Tuesday.
The board wrote: ‘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.
The board acknowledged Gay’s mistakes in handling anti-Semitism on campus, adding: ‘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.’
The Harvard Crimson was first to report Gay would keep her job after the Harvard Corporation – the college’s highest governing body – backed the academic, despite calls for her resignation following her congressional testimony on campus anti-Semitism.
Claudine Gay, pictured during her disastrous appearance before Congress on December 5, will remain as Harvard President, it was reported early Tuesday
A billboard truck at Harvard University on Sunday demanding the removal of president Claudine Gay
Billionaire hedge fund alumnus Bill Ackman – who has led a campaign to unseat Gay that included plagiarism allegations against the scholar – claimed Harvard’s board did not want to be seen kotowing to him.
In its statement on Tuesday, Harvard’s board addressed accusations that Gay plagiarized part of her dissertation, saying they have opened a probe at Gay’s ow request.
‘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.’
The board continued: ‘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.’
Gay, the school’s first black president, was appointed to the post in July 2023. She sparked fury during a congressional hearing last week after she said that it depended on context whether calls for the genocide of Jews at Harvard constituted harassment and violated the rules.
She was subsequently forced to issue an apology following the hearing that cost University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill her job over a similar response.
Gay, who on Monday denied reports she is a plagiarizer, first sparked fury following the October 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel with a tepid condemnation of the outrage.
She was subsequently forced to issue two subsequent apologies that offered more vociferous condemnation of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group behind the atrocities.
Gay has been slammed for taking a pro-free speech stance on hatred towards Jews at a campus recently branded the most censorious in the United States.
New students are warned that failing to use a person’s requested pronoun or being ‘fatphobic’ could constitute violence.
Gay also helped lead the charge against a black Harvard Law School professor axed from his job after defending Harvey Weinstein.
Ronald Sullivan says he was booted from his job in 2019 after agreeing to represent the perverted movie mogul. He accused Gay and others of concocting a false story about him being a bully to get rid of him.
Sullivan said: ‘The actions were cowardly and craven and Dean Gay and Dean Khurana just consistently and repeatedly lied to the student body and they know better.
Billionaire hedge fund alumnus Bill Ackman – who has led a campaign to unseat Gay – claimed Harvard’s board did not want to be seen kotowing to him
‘Their problem was that I represented 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 to withdraw donations from the college.
Despite the backlash, Gay held on to institutional support at Harvard.
On Monday, the Executive Committee of Harvard University’s Alumni Association announced their full support for the scholar, and asked the school’s governing boards to publicly back her, according to the The Harvard Crimson.
The group wrote: ‘President Gay is the right leader to guide the University during this challenging time… She is thoughtful. She is kind. She is resolutely dedicated to the growth and wellbeing of our very diverse community. We recognize that there was disappointment in her testimony this past week. President Gay has pointed this out and apologized for any pain her testimony caused–a powerful demonstration of her integrity, determination, and courage.’
Bill Ackman responded to the alumni groups letter, saying: ‘How did the Association support President Gay without polling its members first?’
Additionally, more than 700 Harvard faculty members signed a letter in support of Gay, urging the school to resist calls to fire her, describing the attacks against her as ‘politically motivated.’
Harvard legal scholar Lawrence Tribe, who previously slammed Gay’s testimony as ‘deeply troubling’ told CNN he signed the petition because ‘once external pressures, whether from ultrawealthy donors or from politicians pursuing their ideological agendas, override the internal decision-making processes of universities, we are on the road to tyranny.’
Former Winthrop House faculty dean Ronald Sullivan accused Gay of dismissing him from his role because of his work on Harvey Weinstein’s defense team
Gay has been accused of using nearly verbatim language from author Carol Swain
Harvard professor Lawrence Lobo, one of the scholars allegedly plagiarized by Gay, told the Boston Globe: ‘I find myself unconcerned as our work was explicitly acknowledged’
The groups’ support for Gay followed an open letter by Ackman to Harvard, his alma mater, accusing Gay of ‘doing more damage to Harvard’s reputation than anyone in the university’s history.’
Ackman claimed ‘the actions of the OEDIB have led to preferences and favoritism for certain racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ groups at the expense of other groups, and made some members of the Harvard community feel included at the expense of others that are excluded.’
The billionaire was accused of racism when he suggested Gay had only been hired because she matched the DEO profile.
In his latest open letter, he said: ‘I was recently accused by several bloggers and other commentators of being a racist when I shared that the board, in the search process that led to the hiring of President Gay, would not consider a candidate for president that did not meet DEI criteria.
‘I have confirmed now from multiple sources that the search committee that led to President Gay’s appointment excluded non-DEI eligible candidates from the process.’
DailyMail.com has not independently verified Ackman’s claim.
Ackman has also shared accusations of plagiarism made against Gay by bloggers Christopher Rufo and Christopher Brunet, who claim the Harvard leader lifted identical wording for her 1997 dissertation.
The bloggers accuse Gay of using nearly verbatim language from authors Lawrence Bobo and Franklin Gilliam and scholar Carol Swain.
Swain reacted to the claims on Twitter, writing: ‘I just learned of analysis of #ClaudineGay ‘s work and the allegations of plagiarism. 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, reviewers, and colleagues should have caught these alleged transgressions.’
Elise Stefanik, a Republican representing New York, grilled the three university presidents last week
UPenn President Liz Magill was forced to resign on Saturday after her disastrous testimony
MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth was also grilled for her school’s response to protests. She too failed to outwardly condemn calls for the genocide of Jews but has survived the backlash
The author added: ‘I would like to know if [Gay] cited me in her published works on districting and representation. This would have had far more long term implications for my career. In academia we get rewarded on the basis of citations.’
Reacting to news that Gay would keep her job, billionaire Elon Musk wrote: #DefundHarvard’
Gay, Magill MIT’s 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 in both parties have called for their resignations.
At issue was a line of questioning that asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the universities’ code of conduct. At the Tuesday hearing, Gay said it depended on the context, adding that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies.”
Gay told The Crimson she was sorry, saying she “got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures.”
‘What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged,’ Gay said.