Harvard University’s president, Claudine Gay, will continue to stay in her job even though there has been a lot of talk about her recent appearance in front of Congress.
Dr Gay was being asked to leave her job because she didn’t say whether students who wanted to hurt Jewish people would get in trouble.
However, in a letter over the weekend, almost 700 staff members showed their support for her.
On Tuesday, the school’s board said they still support her as the leader.
The group in charge at Harvard University thinks President Gay is the best leader to help our community recover and deal with the big issues we are facing.
“At this hard time, we all support President Gay,” said the 13-member board.
Just a few days ago, it was announced that Dr. Gay will continue to be the president, after the University of Pennsylvania’s head, Elizabeth Magill, said she would quit because people were upset about what she said in Congress.
Last week, Dr. Gay spoke with Ms. Magill and the president of MIT, Sally Kornbluth, at a meeting in the House of Representatives about antisemitism.
When Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked Dr. Gay some tough questions, Dr. Gay said she thinks it’s terrible for people to call for the killing of Jews. But she also said whether it breaks Harvard’s rules about bullying and harassment depends on the situation.
She said sorry in a interview with Harvard’s school newspaper, the Crimson, soon after.
She said that when words make the distress and pain worse, she doesn’t understand how you could feel anything other than regret.
The Harvard Corporation said that calls for genocide are terrible and that Dr. Gay should have quickly and clearly condemned them.
However, the school found out that the president of Harvard University said sorry for how she acted when she spoke to Congress.
The board said that Harvard’s goal is to learn more, do research, and make new discoveries that will help solve big problems in society. They believe that President Gay will lead Harvard in this important work.
Almost 700 teachers at Harvard signed a letter asking the university to protect academic freedom and keep Dr. Gay as president, despite political pressure.
At the same time, over 70 lawmakers, mostly from the Republican party, asked Dr. Gay to quit her job, saying her responses at the meeting were terrible.
She became the first black president of the university in July, making history after 368 years.