A
concisely worded petition was signed by at least 570 professors
and was delivered Sunday evening to the 13-member Harvard
Corporation, which has the power to fire university president
Claudine Gay. More professors indicated they also wanted to
sign, according to a co-author of the petition.
Pressure has hiked on Gay over the weekend, after University of
Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned on Saturday.
Gay, Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President
Sally Kornbluth testified before a U.S. House of Representatives
committee last week about a rise in antisemitism on college
campuses following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in
October.
The trio declined to give a definitive "yes" or "no" answer to
Republican Representative Elise Stefanik's question of whether
calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools'
codes of conduct regarding bullying and harassment, saying they
had to balance it against free speech protections.
More than 70 U.S. lawmakers signed onto a letter demanding that
the governing boards of the three universities remove the
presidents, citing dissatisfaction with their testimony.
But Alison Frank Johnson, a Harvard professor of history and a
co-author of the petition delivered to the school's corporation,
rejected the politicized calls for Gay's removal.
"I get the impression that many people don't know how much
support she has, as a scholar, colleague, and administrator,
within the university - including from people who sometimes
disagree with her," Frank Johnson wrote in an email. "We don't
want to lose her because of a political stunt."
Frank Johnson would not provide the language of the petition,
but confirmed that it asks the Harvard Corporation "not to bend
to political pressure, including pressure to remove the
president."
Jewish students, families and alumni have accused the schools of
tolerating antisemitism, especially in statements by
pro-Palestinian demonstrators since the Islamist group Hamas
attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed around 1,200. That attack
prompted a massive counterattack by Israel that has left over
17,700 Palestinians dead, according to the Gaza health ministry.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Editing by
Michael Perry)
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