The President of Harvard has warned she will sue if she is fired amid an antisemitism scandal. Claudine Gay came under scrutiny when she testified at a Congressional hearing on college antisemitism in December and appeared unwilling to condemn chants calling for the genocide of Jews.
Clips of Gay’s grilling by Republican Elise Stefanik went viral online and showed the Harvard President attempt to evade giving a clear response to questions about whether calling for a Jewish genocide breached the Ivy League school’s code of conduct.
During the hearing, Gay repeatedly insisted that Harvard is committed to freedom of speech, and that calling for the killing of Jews was “personally abhorrent” to her. Rep. Stefanik reminded Ms. Gay that Harvard actually ranks among the lowest for adherence to free speech principles of any university in America.
Just weeks after her disastrous appearance in Congress, Gay was under fire again and the pressure on Harvard to sack her intensified. Allegations of plagiarism from various sources meant Gay was forced to issue a number of corrections for past academic papers. A Washington Post op-ed called for her resignation, and the New York Times quickly followed.
The news that she plans to sue Harvard was posted to Twitter by billionaire hedge fun manager Bill Ackman. He wrote that Harvard had asked Claudine Gay to resign but she refused, and “said that if she is fired, she will sue. Gay has retained her own counsel.”
Ackman claimed in December that the university has lost a fortune in donations since the Congressional meeting. “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,” Ackman said.
Mr. Ackman says he is determined to see Gay fired as she had done more damage to the school’s reputation than any other President. He also claims she was appointed to the post because she had the appropriate diversity and inclusion characteristics.
