Harvard president to stay after antisemitism row

Claudine Gay will remain the 30th president of Harvard University, as the top governing board of the oldest college in the United States has given her its full support after days of backlash and calls for her removal over recent testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses.

"In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay," Harvard's board said in a statement on Tuesday.

But the statement also faulted Gay's initial response to the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, which many critics said was halfhearted and inadequate.

In the US, the controversy has come amid a rise in attacks and violent rhetoric targeting Jews and Muslims, including at universities, since the Israel-Palestine conflict erupted.

The University of Pennsylvania's president Liz Magill resigned in the wake of her response to Congress, and pressure had mounted both inside and outside of Harvard to follow suit with Gay.

More than 70 lawmakers, including two Democrats, called for her resignation, while some high-profile Harvard alumni and donors have called for her departure.

But more than 700 Harvard faculty members signed a letter supporting Gay.

Gay, 53, was born in New York to Haitian immigrants and is a political-science professor. In July, Gay became the first black president of the 368-year-old Harvard University in Cambridge, outside Boston.

Ryan Enos, professor of government at Harvard, said earlier that "the reason that Gay has been pressured to resign is because of political pressure from politicians trying to shape universities in their image".

"One of the bedrocks of a free society, one of the most important things for a free society, is that universities are not run by the state," he said.

Billions in loss

Former student and multimillion-dollar donor Bill Ackman claimed in a letter to Harvard's governing boards that "Gay's failures have led to billions of dollars of canceled, paused and withdrawn donations to the university".

Tad Elmer, a Cambridge resident, said "colleges and universities are not political (and) should not be political actors".

Hirobumi Lin, a Harvard scholar in state governance who is Chinese, told China Daily that he supports Gay's retention.

"I support it because universities should avoid too much involvement in politics and donations. Universities should still maintain relative freedom of speech and independence," Lin said.

Agencies contributed to this story.