Former President Barack Obama lobbied Harvard leadership and elites to keep university president Claudine Gay in her role despite her disastrous testimony to Congress.
Gay testified in front of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on December 5 alongside the president of MIT, Sally Kornbluth, and then-president of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill. Magill has since announced her resignation as Penn president over her House Testimony.
During the hearing, all three presidents refused to say that calls for Jewish genocide violate their universities’ policies against hate speech. Each president maintained that such calls depend upon the “context” in which they are made.
The hearing sparked a revolt among Harvard’s wealthiest supporters, such as billionaire Len Blavatnik, whose family foundation has given at least $270 million to the university. Blavatnik froze his financial support to Harvard over concerns of anti-Semitism on the elite school’s campus, according to Bloomberg.
Despite the backlash, Gay has remained at her post. In addition to the scandal created over her December 5 testimony, Gay has also been embroiled in a plagiarism scandal after numerous examples of what other academics say are clear examples of plagiarism were unearthed in Gay’s past work.
Harvard has continued to stand by Gay, and that may be partly due to the private lobbying of Obama, who reportedly came out in support of Gay to Harvard leadership to keep her in her post, according to Jewish Insider.
“It sounded like people were being asked to close ranks to keep the broader administration stable — including its composition,” a source familiar with Obama’s work behind the scenes told Jewish Insider.
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The day after her testimony before the House, Gay attempted to clarify her comments in a statement.
“There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,” Gay said. “Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”
Another day later, Gay apologized for her testimony in an interview with The Harvard Crimson.
“I am sorry,” Gay said. “Words matter.”
She said that she “substantively … failed to convey what is my truth.”