"Healing" at Harvard: "Gay is the Right Leader...."

The Harvard Corporation Board has voted not to remove Claudine Gay as Harvard's president in the wake of her disastrous testimony last week before the House Education Committee. Here is their statement.

In particular, I take note of the opening paragraph:

"As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing."

Amazing. Setting aside the charges of plagiarism surrounding Gay, as well as the likelihood of a deep reduction in donations to the university, I don't see how Gay is the right person to bring about healing at Harvard. She is part of the problem, and her testimony about "context" when it comes to Jew-hating and genocidal expressions on campus has brought embarrassment to what is supposed to be America's most prestigious university. 

To be sure, she is hardly the only university administrator who has shown cowardice and/or indifference to anti-Semitism on her campus. The two presidents of M.I.T. and the University of Pennsylvania showed the same faults in their testimony as they sat beside her. They all answered Congresswoman Elise Stefanik's question in the same manner. The latter, Liz McGill, has already resigned her position. Beyond those three, universities all over the country are plagued by the same kind of cowardly, indifferent, and incompetent leadership.

But the Harvard Corporation has spoken, and now the wagons are circling around Gay. This week's Harvard Crimson's front page is covered with op-eds, generally in support of Gay. To the Crimson, it is Elise Stefanik who is the villain here.

I have no doubt, as embarrassed as chastened as Gay is, that Harvard will double down on expressions of support for Jewish students and condemnation of anti-Semitism (and Islamophobia) without specifying who the purveyors of campus anti-Semitism are. Probably, a task force will be formed to hold meetings and issue recommendations. It will all mean nothing. I saw the same thing play out with the University of California's Statement of Principles on Intolerance. The pro-Palestinian protests and campus disruptions will continue, Jewish students will be bullied and insulted, and their events and speakers disrupted.  Calls for the eradication of the Jewish state of Israel will continue. Business as usual. Healing? Don't bet on it.

Is anybody listening to the stories of Jewish students who have come forth? Does anybody care? Is it really all about context as one of Harvard's law professors insists in Gay's defense in the Crimson?

In the wake of Harvard's inaction, it is time to bring civil rights lawsuits against the university and for donors to send their money elsewhere. Maybe that will get their attention.