Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University President Claudine Jay has resigned amid accusations of plagiarism and criticism of her testimony at a congressional hearing in which she was unable to say unequivocally that campus calls for the genocide of Jews would violate the school's conduct policy.
President of Harvard University Claudine Jay.credit: AP
She and the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania came under fire last month for their legalistic answers to a series of questions posed by New York Representative Elise Stefanik, who asked whether “advocating the genocide of Jews” violated the colleges’ code of conduct. behavior.
The three chairmen were called before the Republican-led House Education and Workforce Committee to respond to accusations that universities are failing to protect Jewish students amid growing concerns about anti-Semitism around the world and the fallout from Israel's intensifying war in Gaza, which faces mounting criticism over the high Palestinian death toll. .
It depends on the context, Jay said, adding that when “speech turns into behavior, it violates our policies.” The response faced swift backlash from Republican lawmakers and some Democrats as well as the White House. The hearing was parodied in the opening skit Saturday Night Live.
Jay later apologized, saying:crimson A student newspaper said it was caught up in a heated debate at a House committee hearing and failed to properly condemn threats of violence against Jewish students.
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“What I should have done in that moment was to return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged.” Jay said.
Gay announced her departure, which came just months into her tenure, in a letter to the Harvard community.
The incident marred Gay's early tenure at Harvard — where she became president in July — and sowed the seeds of discord on the Ivy League campus.
