Antisemitism row: Pressure mounts on Harvard after UPenn president quits

After president of the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, resigned over antisemitism row, pressure mounts on Harvard's Claudine Gay.

The school board of directors met on Sunday amid calls for her resignation. Though the matters of discussions were not disclosed, reportedly Gay's future at the university came up for talks.

Three university presidents including MIT president Sally Kornbluth and Magill appeared for testimonies in front of a House of Representatives committee that focused on hearing antisemitism issues on campuses on December 5.

Their testimonies relating to questions on "genocide of Jews" had triggered a huge controversy. When the committee asked whether students who called for genocide of Jews would be punished, Magill had refused to answer at first and said that it would depend on the "context".

Gay also answered similarly to the question and faced a huge backlash. Gay had apologised for her response on antisemitism and said that "words amplify distress and pain".

"I am sorry...When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret," said Gay in an interview published in the Harvard Crimson.

In the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, antisemitic incidents had gone up at the universities. A growing number of Congress, donors and other prominent leaders are still calling for Gay to step down.

Amid the uproar, Republican Elise Stefanik of New York wrote on X, "One down. Two to go," with references to Gay and Kornbluth.

Stefanik, along with 71 bipartisan lawmakers, sent a letter to the governing boards of the three universities urging them to remove its presidents.

Though many faculty members have signed in support of Gay, major donors remain unmoved. "President Gay's actions and inactions have gravely interfered with the ability of students to continue to learn at Harvard and for its faculty to teach and do research," wrote major donor Bill Ackman on X. 

Harvard is among the 14 colleges under investigation by the Department of Education since the attacks " “for discrimination involving shared ancestry” an umbrella term that covers both Islamophobia and antisemitism.