Hundreds of Harvard faculty rally around university president snarled in antisemitism debate

Hundreds of Harvard faculty have signed on to a letter in defense of the university’s president, Claudine Gay, as some lawmakers and alumni are calling for her resignation just months into her term.

Gay’s critics allege that she has bungled Harvard’s official response to the ongoing crisis in Israel and Gaza and ensuing campus protests. Those calls have intensified since Gay’s testimony before Congress last week, especially her contentious exchange with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik.

As of Monday afternoon, more than 700 professors and instructors were urging the board to keep Gay in a brief petition launched this weekend. The petition asks the university to resist those calls — and argues that the ongoing pressure campaign poses a threat to academic freedom.

The total number of signatories is still growing, according to Melani Cammett, who helped launched the petition with 13 other members of Harvard’s faculty.

The hundreds of signatories may not have "reached consensus" on the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, the limits of student protest or Gay’s response. But they do agree that “having outside actors attempt to control the discourse at Harvard is not helpful,” said Cammett, a professor of international relations.

In a separate letter, over 80 Black members of the Harvard faculty applauded Gay, and called attacks on her character “specious and politically motivated.” A student-led rally arguing that “Gay should stay” is set to occur on Harvard's campus Monday afternoon.

The mobilization on Harvard's campus comes after three university leaders testified before a House committee last Tuesday, unleashing a wave of outrage.

The criticism stemmed from their answers to Stefanik, a New York Republican. Gay seemed to equivocate about whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate Harvard’s code of conduct and trigger discipline.

Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, gave a similar answer. She announced her resignation Saturday.

Some expected at least a statement from Harvard’s governing boards, which convened for scheduled meetings over the weekend. But as of midday Monday, none had materialized.

For her part, Gay has apologized for her congressional testimony in a Thursday interview with the Crimson, saying that “words matter” and that she failed to convey her “guiding truth” — namely that threats against Jewish students have no place at the university.

As a Haitian American woman, Gay is the first person of color and the second woman to lead Harvard in nearly 400 years of history.