Features
Harvard University’s President resigns over anti-Semitism problem
Accusation of not forcefully preventing anti-Semitism
I was stunned when I read in the NYT of the dilemma that Claudine Gay, President of Harvard, had to face at the end of December last year. She was on holiday with family in Rome, as reported by Maureen Farrel and Bob Copeland in the said paper when Penny Pritzker, leader of Harvard University’s governing board called to ask whether “she thought there was a path forward with her as the school’s president.” Dr Gay understood what it meant. Her six month tenure as Harvard’s 30th president was over. She announced her resignation on January 2.
“That marked the end of one of the most tumultuous periods in Harvard’s 387 year history, a controversy that thrust the school into the public debate after Hamas’ October 7 attack. Not only did the president lose her job, but the secretive workings of its board, the Harvard Corporation, were laid bare.” Dr Gay had faced severe criticism of her ‘tepid’ response to antisemitism on campus and her testimony before a House panel. Allegations of plagiarism in her research work and writing had been sounded earlier. Now that too was thrust forward. And thus the resignation under a cloud of this much commented on, lauded, and history making selection of this first Black president to head one of the most prestigious American universities, if not world renowned, centres of academia.
Dr Gay is the daughter of Haitian immigrants. She received her BA in 1992 from Stanford, majoring in economics, and her PhD in government from Harvard in 1998. She was on the Faculty of Stanford and then moved to Harvard in 2006 as a professor in government; the next year in African American Studies. She won many prestigious prizes.
Ms Elizabeth Magill
, Prez of the University of Pennsylvania, had to face questioning and probing by the House Committee of Education on Capitol Hill on the same as posed to Prof Gay. She was further faulted for holding a conference on Palestinian literature just before the Hamas attack.
All the hullabaloo and resignation of yet another woman Prez of a University, started as reported in the articles I read, with Republican Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina as Chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, arranging hearings on anti-Semitism in college campuses. The two presidents of Harvard and Penn Universities are said to have given ‘evasive answers’ about whether calls for genocide of Jews violated their schools’ codes of conduct. Then rose the uproar created by Ms Foxx and other House Republicans of expansive investigation into institution of higher education, citing anti-Semitism.
This to me is a genuine witch-hunt. Ms Foxx forwards their reason for investigation thus: “We want students to feel safe in their campuses, that’s our No. 1 issue, and Jewish students have not felt safe.” She said she wanted to broaden the inquiry “to deep dive into the hostile takeover of higher education by partisan administrators and political activists.” As the article I quote noted: “They want to interfere with accreditation and stop federal aid to schools that fail to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic actions.”
Do we laugh or cry? Both I suppose. And this happening in a country where on Jan 6, 2021, the voted out President of the US, Donald Trump, roused and incited his followers so they attacked US Capitol Building in Washington DC, and ransacked it. And he is stomping around to contest the coming presidential election. Only the soon to be delivered verdict of the Supreme Court can stymie him.
Claudine Gay
We have grown used to such do good remarks which ultimately cause so much turmoil. We have had our language and religion ‘protected’ by prejudiced politicians and Buddhist monks causing near wars. In our small country an issue like ragging in universities has not been stopped or even given enough attention, though students have committed suicide or died consequent to sadistic, degraded bullying of freshers by senior students.
Women in local academia
We have had many women in very high posts in Academia in our country. Googling, I found these names and wish to record them. Deshabandu Wimala de Silva was Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayawardenapura. Vice Chancellors have been Prof Chandrika N Wijeratne, U of Colombo (2019-22); Prof Kshanika Hirimbuwegama, U of Colombo (2007-13); Emeritus Prof Savitri Goonesekera, U of Colombo (1999-2002); Prof Dr Nilanthi Renuka de Silva, U of Kelaniya (2020, reappointed in 2023).
Personal encounters
I worked in the Centre for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR) within the Law Faculty, University of Colombo, for eight years starting in the 1990s and got to know the Deans of the Faculty well. I was recruited by Dr Deepika Udagama, senior law lecturer, who started the Centre and got it going so successfully that it is now recognized widely and conducts post-graduate diploma courses for international students as well as locals.
A young administrative officer and I were the first two recruits who assisted Dr Udagama. She was dedicated to her lecturing plus advancing the mandate of the Centre. With her support and foreign aid, we set up a very well-stocked library. Her equally high ability in English and Sinhala are remarkable. She had an illustrious career.
Prof Sharya de Soysa Scharenguivel was senior lecturer at the Law Faculty when the CSHR was inaugurated, after having served as its Dean. She appreciated my work as information officer cum librarian and approved my style of warmly welcoming students to use the well-stocked library made comfortable with easy chairs and foreign newspapers and journals subscribed to.
We assisted in the research of faculty and students. When I complained that the shut wooden door was a barrier to students – the library was air-conditioned – she immediately got glass panes for almost three quarters of the door. Her concern for students was immense; she being a totally lovely person and very understanding of people’s problems.
Vidyajothi Prof Lalitha Mendis was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and was for a while Acting VC of the University of Colombo. This was most fortuitous for me since the VC (male) who was leaving on sabbatical, I presume, summoned me and announced coldly I was being discontinued as information officer of the CSHR and asked to leave in two weeks, yes, in a fortnight. I was on contract basis, but there really seemed no valid reason for my dismissal, which it was.
Prof Sharya was concerned on behalf of the students, and me. When Prof Lalitha Mendis assumed duties as VC, I was advised to phone her. I did. She said she was on her way to a meeting and asked me to phone her the next morning. Imagine my surprise when I received a call from her! She said she would make thorough enquires about my work and decide my fate.
I needed my job but that was not mentioned by me except to the VC who sacked me. He was unperturbed. (Later he was named in a court of law of having assisted in bankrupting Sri Lanka). Result of investigation: lecturers and students approved of me and I was given a further contract. My gratitude to these two academics: Profs Lalitha Mendis and Sharya Scharenguivel was and is still immense. They saved me.
Political interference in Academia?
A scar that ran deep and will never be erased is the hounding out and totally politicized dismissal of the first woman CJ, by parliamentary impeachment when Mahinda Rajapaksa was Prez and Prof G L Peiris in his Cabinet. Prof Peiris was Minster of Justice when Prez CBK first appointed Dr Shirani Bandaranayake, Dean of the Faculty of Law, as a SC judge. He was VC of Colombo Uni when she was Dean.
Politicization may have been present in academia apart from the instance noted above and may still be present. Where in this country is political interference absent? Internal politics too would be present. While working within the University of Colombo, I kept absolutely clear of gossip and rumour. However, one fact I strongly affirm is that I very truly found women lecturers and deans to be fair, committed and always concerned about students and their welfare. That is why I narrated incidents from my working life on the periphery, as it was, of the University of Colombo.
Thus it rightly seems to be that our seats of higher learning are not subject to whims such as the recent dismissal of authorities in the US of American where University Presidents have been removed from office because students gathered together to condemn the atrocities committed by Israel’s Jewish PM and Defence Forces (IDF).