The governing board of Harvard was close to a decision to keep the president of the university in her job after a marathon closed-door meeting was spurred by the flurry of criticism that followed her controversial remarks before Congress last week, two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times on Monday night. The meeting was ongoing as of late Monday, however, and no announcement was expected before Tuesday. Dr. Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony—in which she and two other high-profile university presidents stumbled while addressing the issue of campus antisemitism—provoked considerable backlash, with calls for her resignation and threats from hundreds of alumni to withdraw their donations. (She has since apologized for her comments.) But Monday night’s development comes as other alumni emerged to back Gay, with the Executive Committee of the Harvard Alumni Association declaring earlier that it “unanimously and unequivocally supports” her, according to CNN. More than 600 faculty members have similarly rallied around Gay, demanding in an open letter that the governing board not bend to political pressure to fire her.
