(New York Post) Harvard University announced Tuesday that under-fire President Claudine Gay will keep her job — even after reportedly losing more than $1 billion in donations since her disastrous congressional testimony about antisemitism.
The Harvard Corporation — the university’s highest governing body — made its announcement Tuesday following night-long talks between Gay and university leaders, a source familiar with the decision told the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson.
“As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” the group said in a statement.
It is unclear what led the board to make the controversial decision to ignore fervent calls for her firing days after University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill lost her job over similar testimony failing to condemn calls for genocide.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman claimed the board did not want to seem like it was simply bowing to his public demands for her ouster.
“I have been told now by two reporters that one of the factors that made it challenging for the Harvard board to fire Gay was that they were concerned it would look like they were kowtowing to me,” claimed Ackman of his public criticism and calls for action.
“In other words, the reporters explained, quoting the trustees: ‘Had Bill just stopped tweeting, we would have come to the right answer,’” he claimed.
“So much for ‘Veritas,’” he said, referring to the Latin word for “truth” that is part of Harvard’s motto.
Harvard University officials are expected to announce Tuesday that President Claudine Gay will retain her position. Boston Globe via Getty Images
AP
Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square, has made a name for himself as an outspoken critic of Ivy League presidents whom he accuses of failing to stamp out antisemitism on campuses.
That escalated after Gay, Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth failed to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews at their schools during a fiery congressional hearing.
As well as the hit on its reputation, Harvard has suffered a staggering financial loss in the scandal, the hedge funder claimed.
“President Gay’s failures have led to billions of dollars canceled, paused and withdrawn donations to the university,” he wrote in a letter to the school’s governing board of directors on Sunday, which he also posted online.
“I am personally aware of more than a billion dollars of terminated donations from a small group of Harvard’s most generous Jewish and non-Jewish alumni.
