What's the antisemitism row at Harvard, Penn, MIT? How it could hurt the universities?

Some of America’s top universities have been engulfed in an antisemitism row in the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war. On Tuesday, University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill, Harvard president Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) president Sally Kornbluth testified before Congress about what they were doing to combat antisemitism on their campuses. Their remarks drew a torrent of criticism from Republicans, Democrats and the White House. Now, UPenn president Elizabeth Magill is under pressure to resign. The development comes as the federal government over the past month opened investigations into several universities — including Penn and Harvard — regarding antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus. The education department also has sent letters to schools reminding them of their legal duty to stop harassment that interferes with student learning. Let’s take a look at the row and the fallout: What happened? Gay, Magill of Penn and Kornbluth all disavowed antisemitism and Islamophobia on their campuses while acknowledging that instances of both had taken place since the 7 October attack on Israel. All three presidents defended their universities’ response to the incidents. “As president, I am committed to a safe, secure and supportive educational environment so that our academic mission can thrive,” Magill said in her opening statement. “As a student of constitutional democracy, I know that we need both safety and free expression for universities and ultimately democracy to thrive. In these times, these competing principles can be difficult to balance, but I am determined to get it right.” “Harvard must provide firm leadership in the fight against antisemitism and hate speech even while preserving room for free expression and dissent. This is difficult work, and I admit that we have not always gotten it right,” added Gay. “As Harvard’s president, I am personally responsible for confronting antisemitism with the urgency it demands.” [caption id=“attachment_13481652” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Harvard president Claudine Gay, left, speaks as University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill listens during a hearing of the House Committee on Education on Capitol Hill. AP[/caption] The row erupted after Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each university’s code of conduct.

As per The Guardian, Stefanik seemed to be equating chants protests calling for an ‘intifada’ with genocide.

Magill responded that whether hate speech crossed the line into violating Penn’s policies depended on context. “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill said. As per The Guardian, when Stefanik directly asked for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, Magill did not do so. Gay responded to the question in a similar manner, saying that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies.” Kornbluth responded that she had not heard calling for the genocide of Jews on MIT’s campus, and that speech “targeted at individuals, not making public statements,” would be considered harassment. In the end, all three presidents refused to give a simple “yes” or “no” answer. What’s the fallout? Video clips of the hearing sparked outrage among the schools’ Jewish students and alumni, who, following the hearing, stepped up calls for Magill and Gay to resign. One prominent donor, Stone Ridge Asset Management founder and CEO Ross Stevens, has withdrawn a gift to Penn worth nearly $100 million to protest the school’s response to on-campus antisemitism, Stevens said in a letter. “Mr Stevens and Stone Ridge are appalled by the University’s stance on antisemitism on campus,” said the letter, which was first reported by Axios. “Absent a change in leadership and values at Penn in the very near future, I plan to rescind Penn’s Stone Ridge shares to help prevent any further reputational and other damage to Stone Ridge as a result of our relationship with Penn and Liz Magill,” Stevens wrote to his employees, as per CNN.

Magill on Wednesday attempted to clarify her answer.

She said a call for the genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment or intimidation. “I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate,” Magill said in a video statement released by the university. “It’s evil, plain and simple.” Magill called for a review of Penn’s policies, which she said have long been guided by the US Constitution but need to be “clarified and evaluated” as hate spreads across campus and around the world “in a way not seen in years.” Magill said she and Provost John Jackson would begin a process to evaluate and clarify campus policy, saying, “We can and will get this right.” [caption id=“attachment_13481662” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) president Sally Kornbluth has been backed by the university. AP[/caption] Gay on Wednesday condemned calls for violence against Jewish students. “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,” Gay wrote Wednesday. The MIT board has lined up strongly behind Kornbluth. “The MIT Corporation chose Sally to be our president for her outstanding academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass, and her ability to unite our community around MIT’s core values. She has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, which we reject utterly at MIT. She has our full and unreserved support,” the statement read as per CNN. The outlet reported that the Penn University board held an ‘emergency meeting’ on Thursday. “There is no board plan for imminent leadership change,” a board spokesperson was quoted as saying by CNN. Though Magill survived, the Wharton Board of Advisors – which leads Penn’s business school – has demanded a change at the top. “As a result of the University leadership’s stated beliefs and collective failure to act, our Board respectfully suggests to you and the Board of Trustees that the University requires new leadership with immediate effect,” the Wharton Board of Advisors said in a letter to Magill. “In light of your testimony yesterday before Congress, we demand the University clarify its position regarding any call for harm to any group of people immediately, change any policies that allow such conduct with immediate effect, and discipline any offenders expeditiously,” the letter stated. “Our board has been, and remains, deeply concerned about the dangerous and toxic culture on our campus that has been led by a select group of students and faculty and has been permitted by University leadership,” the letter concluded. [caption id=“attachment_13481682” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The row erupted after Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each university’s code of conduct. AP[/caption] Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that Marc Rowan, the billionaire CEO of Apollo Global Management, who gave $50 million to Penn’s Wharton School in 2018, renewed his demand to the Board of Trustees that Magill be replaced following her testimony.

“How much damage to our reputation are we willing to accept?” he wrote in the letter seen by the Times.

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An online petition demanding the university’s Board of Trustees accept Magill’s resignation due to her “inability to unequivocally condemn calls for the genocide of Jewish students and inability to identify these as harassment” had 2,500 signatures by Wednesday afternoon. “This equivocation sent a chilling message to Jewish students,” the petition’s letter said. Two Penn students filed a federal lawsuit against the university on Tuesday, accusing it of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and specific employees, including Magill, of being “responsible for the antisemitic abuse permeating the school.” On Friday, Rabbi David Wolpe resigned from Harvard’s antisemitism committee. Wolpe posted on X:

1/3 Resigning, a Hanukkah Message: As of today I have resigned from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard. Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short…

— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) December 7, 2023

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, a nonvoting member of Penn’s Board of Trustees, told reporters on Wednesday the board had a “serious decision” to make regarding Magill’s statements. “They have seemingly failed every step of the way to take concrete action to make sure all students feel safe on campus,” Shapiro said. “And then the testimony yesterday took it to the next level.” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on X wrote he was “ashamed” of testimony, saying it is “one of the most despicable moments in the history of US academia.”

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, an alumni of Harvard, call on all three presidents to resign.

“Throughout the hearing, the three behaved like hostile witnesses,” Ackman wrote. “Exhibiting a profound disdain for the Congress with their smiles and smirks, and their outright refusal to answer basic questions with a yes or no answer.” “They must all resign in disgrace. If a CEO of one of our companies gave a similar answer, he or she would be toast within the hour,” Ackman said on X. “The answers they gave reflect the profound moral bankruptcy of Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth.” Billionaire Elon Musk, a Penn graduate, also chimed in on X. “I am a Penn alum and this is indeed shameful,” Musk, who himself was engulfed in an antisemitism row recently, wrote. White House condemns responses, Republicans pounce White House spokesman Andrew Bates issued a statement Wednesday criticising Gay, Magill and Kornbluth’s responses for not going far enough to condemn antisemitism on campuses. “It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,” he said. “Any statements that advocate for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting — and we should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the most basic values that unite us as Americans.” The Guardian reported that Florida Governor Ron Desantis, who went to Harvard Law, waded into the controversy. “I think what this has revealed is the rot and the sickness that’s been festering inside higher education for a long time,” said DeSantis.

“They should not be these hotbeds of anti-Americanism and antisemitism. But that’s what they’ve become.”

“For years, universities have stoked the flames of an ideology which goes by many names—anti-racism, anti-colonialism, critical race theory, DEI, intersectionality, the list goes on,” Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the committee chairwoman, said. “And now it is clear that Jews are at the bottom of the totem pole and without protection under this critical theory framework.” The Republican-led House Education and Workforce Committee said Thursday that it will take “additional action” to hold Harvard, MIT and Penn accountable. The panel said it will review the schools’ policies and disciplinary records and examine “their seemingly deplorable record.” But Democrats noted that Republicans have sought to cut funding to the Education Department, and specifically the Office of Civil rights, which undertakes investigations into issues like antisemitism and discrimination on campuses. Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the committee’s ranking Democrat, criticised Republicans for “stoking culture wars” while claiming to be combatting discrimination on campus. “You can’t have it both ways,” Scott said. “You can’t call for action and then hamstring the agency charged with taking that action to protect students’ civil rights.” Free speech experts troubled Some free speech experts say they are troubled by the backlash. The Guardian quoted the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression as saying it found Magill’s response about re-evaluating Penn’s policies a “deeply troubling, profoundly counterproductive response” to the anger. “Were Penn to retreat from the robust protection of expressive rights, university administrators would make inevitably political decisions about who may speak and what may be said on campus,” it said. The result of placing new limits on speech, it said, would mean “dissenting and unpopular speech – whether pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, conservative or liberal – will be silenced”. Others pointed out that the college presidents’ answers, while uncomfortable, did follow current interpretations of the First Amendment. Any call for genocide would deserve condemnation but “is not speech that could be banned or punished by the state,” according to the nonprofit PEN America. “The First Amendment’s protections for speech extend even to deeply hateful speech, unless it constitutes a true threat, incitement to imminent violence, or harassment, which is legally defined as requiring severity and pervasiveness,” said Suzanne Nossel, the group’s CEO. With inputs from agencies