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Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Harvard University President Claudine Gay will remain in office as she faces calls to resign following her testimony during a House hearing on anti-Semitism on college campuses, the university's board said Tuesday. The Harvard Corporation, the highest governing body at the university, announced the decision to keep Gay on board Tuesday morning.
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"As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay's continued leadership of Harvard University," it wrote. "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."
In regards to her testimony before the House, the Harvard Corporation acknowledged that Gay had apologized and has since "committed to redoubling the university's fight against anti-Semitism."
It also asserted that "calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values."
"So many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas's brutal terrorist attack, and the university's initial statement should have been an immediate, direct and unequivocal condemnation," it wrote.
The board further said that it initiated an independent review into allegations regarding three articles written by Gay and found "a few instances of inadequate citation."
"While the analysis found no violation of Harvard's standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications," it wrote.
On Monday more than 700 members of Harvard's faculty signed a letter to the Harvard Corporation urging the university leaders to let Gay continue to lead the institution.
"We, the undersigned faculty, urge you in the strongest possible terms to defend the independence of the university and to resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard's commitment to academic freedom, including calls for the removal of President Claudine Gay," the letter said.
Gay also received support from the executive committee of the Harvard Alumni Association which said it "unanimously and unequivocally" supported her.
"We have full confidence in her leadership during this difficult time," the committee wrote.
Gay appeared in the House hearing last week alongside Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill all of whom were questioned about whether students calling for the genocide of Jews amid Israel's war with Hamas should be punished.
In a line of questioning by Harvard alumnus Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., which was widely spread online following the hearing, Gay said such hateful speech is "abhorrent to me" and "at odds with the values of Harvard."
But Gay and the other presidents declined to confirm that such speech was against the codes of conduct at their universities when pressed further.
"We embrace a commitment to free expression even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful -- it's when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying, harassment, intimidation," Gay said.
Gay later apologized for her testimony.
"I am sorry," Gay told The Crimson. "Words matter. When words amplify distress and pain, I don't know how you could feel anything but regret."
Magill resigned over the weekend in the wake of the testimony, prompting Stefanik to write "One down. Two to go," in a post on social media.
Billionaire investor and Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman also joined the call for the remaining presidents to be removed, who wrote on social media that "the focus turns to Presidents Gay and Kornbluth and the boards of Harvard," following Magill's resignation.
The House last week announced it would launch a probe into policies and disciplinary procedures at higher education institutions following the testimony and the U.S. Education Department last month launched investigations into anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents 57 schools including Harvard and UPenn in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
