The board of the American university Harvard released a statement this Tuesday (12) to express support for the institution's president, Claudine Gay, criticized after a hearing in the United States Congress in which she hesitated to point out anti-Semitism as an attitude that would violate the university codes of conduct.
“As members of the Harvard Corporation, today we reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University,” said the statement, according to information from CNN.
“Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and resolve the very serious social problems we face,” the board said in the statement. “In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously support President Gay.”
Last week, at a U.S. House hearing, Gay and two other American university presidents, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), refused to speak. “yes” when asked whether speeches preaching the genocide of the Jewish people would constitute a violation of the rules of conduct in their institutions.
At the time, Gay said: “We are committed to free speech even from objectionable, offensive and hateful views – it is when that speech turns into conduct that it violates our policies against bullying, harassment and intimidation.”
Parliamentarians, mainly from the Republican Party, businesspeople and donors of resources to American universities called for the three to leave. Of these, only Liz Magill resigned.
The MIT board also spoke out, supporting Kornbluth. Gay apologized for his speech in an interview with the Harvard Crimson, the university's student newspaper, which was used by the board as justification to defend his stay.
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