Hundreds of Harvard staff back university’s president amid antisemitism hearing row
More than 600 members of staff at Harvard University have backed its president following criticism over her appearance at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.
It comes amid mounting pressure on Claudine Gay to step down after she suggested it would depend on the context whether or not calling for the “genocide of Jews” would be classed as breaking university rules on bullying and harassment.
She told the Washington DC committee of politicians that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies”.
Two others who appeared alongside her at the hearing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, were criticised for similar comments.
All three condemned antisemitism during the session last week but dozens of Republican politicians have demanded they be removed from their posts, arguing that the trio should have been more unequivocal in their answers.
Prof Magill resigned at the weekend amid the growing row, while Harvard’s governing body is yet to issue a statement. MIT has given Prof Kornbluth its full backing.
Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican whose questions sparked the controversy, wrote on X: “One down. Two to go”.
More than 70 members of Congress, mostly Republicans, have also called for Prof Gay to go, while billionaire donor and former student Bill Ackman accused her of doing more damage to the university’s reputation than anyone else in history.
However, a petition signed by hundreds of staff has now urged Prof Gay to stay in her post and for the university’s governing body to resist political pressures “that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom”.
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In an interview with student newspaper The Crimson, the Harvard president apologised for her answer and said she “got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures”.
She added: “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.”
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Clash over antisemitism in US Congress
The controversy comes amid concern over reports of an uptick in antisemitism and Islamophobia at universities – and wider society – amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Supporters of Prof Gay, who became Harvard’s first black president in July, believe she is being targeted for political reasons as Republicans see the US’s Ivy League universities as a “hotbed” of liberalism.
Melani Cammett, a professor of international affairs who helped organise the petition, said: “We have lawmakers getting intimately involved in trying to dictate governance on campus, and this seems unacceptable.”
Critics of Prof Gay have also given her their backing. Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said her testimony was “hesitant, formulaic, and bizarrely evasive” – but said it would be “dangerous for universities to be readily bullied into micromanaging their policies”.
Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.
Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.
The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.
In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”
Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”
Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP
People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.
“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.
A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters
A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.
Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters
Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP
Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”
The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.
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