Students react to controversy over Harvard’s president

Disheartened, upset by Gay’s remarks and demands for her to resign

CAMBRIDGE — Harvard University students say they’re frustrated and angry with president Claudine Gay in the wake of her testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism last week, but several said the calls for her ouster go too far.

Interviews with more than a dozen students in recent days revealed a student body disheartened and upset by Gay’s remarks — and by demands she resign — as well as deeply divided over the Israel-Hamas war. Many students said Gay, who apologized in an interview with the Harvard Crimson last week, hasn’t done enough to support Jewish and Palestinian students caught up in a local flashpoint of the conflict.

“I think she’s trying to act too much as a political figure, and not as much as a person who’s here to protect your students and see the best vision [for the university],” said Ethan Hooper, 21, who studies psychology and government, as he walked across Harvard Yard Saturday afternoon. “You can apologize, but you know, sometimes it’s a little late.”

The furor over Gay’s comments, and the broader intensity of feeling over the Israel-Hamas conflict on campus, left many students unwilling to engage at all on the issue. Scores of students approached by Globe reporters in Harvard Yard declined to speak about the case; others requested anonymity out of concern they would face backlash for speaking out.

Tommy T., a recent PhD graduate, said it seemed like Gay was “set up by these Republican congresspeople” and said firing the president over her comments would be “ridiculous.” He declined to give his last name, citing trucks and planes that have circled campus with targeted messages.

Gay, as well as the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, faced intense criticism for offering legalistic and equivocal answers to questions about whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ rules.

Gay denounced antisemitism elsewhere in her testimony, but not in an exchange with congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, that went viral.

Stefanik asked Gay: “At Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment — yes or no?”

“It can be, depending on the con

text,” Gay responded.

In an interview published in the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, Friday, Gay apologized for her response to the genocide question.

“When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret,” she said in the interview.

Hooper, who is from Oregon, said he was disappointed that Gay didn’t take a strong enough stand against antisemitism in her remarks Tuesday.

“It’s a fairly easy question to answer — antisemitism in all its forms is bad,” Hooper said Saturday. “And, you know, if you can’t provide an easy answer ... that testimony is very hard to hear as a student.”

Other students said the criticism of Gay is not entirely fair.

Daniella Elge, a freshman studying applied mathematics, said Monday the national uproar over campus antisemitism is at odds with her own perception of Harvard’s administration, which she said has maintained a “very pro-Israel” stance, despite increasing pro-Palestinian activity on campus.

She also said it seemed like Gay was put in an unfair situation with Stefanik’s line of questioning. “It felt like they were just putting her into a hole,” Elge said. “I don’t want her to resign.”

In the midst of finals season, Elge added that the spotlight on campus has been overwhelming at times. ”Every day, it’s protests,” sometimes right outside her dorm window, Elge said. “And I have people from home contacting me asking me, asking me about what my thoughts are.”

Ben Sorkin, a residential staff member who also received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Harvard, said he “didn’t love” Gay’s testimony, but he said firing her over outside pressure “sets a bad precedent.”

”I think the hearing was in bad faith,” Sorkin said. “And I think she prepared a legalistic answer that answered the question — perhaps not what people wanted to hear — but, I think, appropriately drew a line between speech and conduct. And I hate to see external pressure weigh in on it.”

He said tensions on campus seem to have settled down within the last month, despite the increase in national attention, adding that most students hold less intense beliefs about the conflict than what typically appears in the press.

But over the years at Harvard, Sorkin said he’s seen issues of campus free speech go from a “fringe conversation” to a major talking point.

”Now, everybody has a claim on what kind of speech should be allowed,” he said. “I think people even know policies way better now than they did back then, for better or for worse.”

Students described a campus deeply divided by the Israel-Hamas War.

Ely Hahami, 18, who is Jewish, said Saturday that he was happy Gay apologized. He hadn’t thought enough about whether he believed Gay should step down, he said, but was open to seeing how she moved forward.

“Some may argue it’s too little too late. But I think there’s more work to be done if she were to remain in this position, [and] I support her efforts and try,” Hahami said.

He lamented the division on campus, and said he wished those on either side could come together for a civil debate.

Tala Alfoqaha, a Harvard Law School student who is Palestinian, said she was frustrated by the controversy over the congressional hearing and calls for Gay’s ouster. Those issues have overshadowed the war and the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, she said.

Harvard, she said, hasn’t done enough to support Palestinian students against threats. Alfoqaha said she had been doxxed, and her face and name plastered on the side of a truck for speaking out against the war.

“The administration has failed its students, it’s failed its Palestinian students in particular,” Alfoqaha said. “Palestinian students and pro-Palestinian students are the ones who are losing their jobs, the ones whose faces and names are on trucks.”

An airplane flew over the university Saturday while pulling a banner that read, “Harvard hates Jews” — a message denounced by a pro-Palestinian student group. A few hundred people, including many students, marched on Harvard Yard Sunday as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.

On Massachusetts Avenue, a box truck was parked near the campus Sunday — the slogan “Fire Gay” written on its trailer.