Harvard President Apologizes for Congressional Testimony on Antisemitism – The New York Times

Harvard s president, Claudine Gay, apologized to the university community for her testimony before Congress, where she gave evasive responses to questions about whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate campus policies.

I am sorry, Dr. Gay said in an interview that the campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, published on Friday. Words matter.

When words amplify distress and pain, I don t know how you could feel anything but regret, she said.

The interview came as Dr. Gay faced a storm of repercussions, including the abrupt resignation of a rabbi from Harvard s antisemitism advisory committee, the start of a congressional inquiry and even suggestions from a prominent alumnus that she was unqualified for her post, which she assumed in July.

Dr. Gay said in the interview that she had become caught up in a volley of questions on Tuesday from Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, and should have had the presence of mind during the exchange to return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community threats to our Jewish students have no place at Harvard and will never go unchallenged.

The exchanges involving Ms. Stefanik, Dr. Gay and two other university leaders, Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of M.I.T., have thrown three of the country s most influential colleges into turmoil. On Thursday, a House committee opened an investigation into the learning environments on all three campuses, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said the three presidents should leave their posts.

via www.nytimes.com

Larry Summers would have handled this better. Just sayin’.