Harvard Board Meets as Its President Faces Uncertain Future

The president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, faced escalating pressure on Sunday to resign as prominent alumni, donors and politicians called for her ouster. But a group of faculty members rallied to support her, arguing that she was being railroaded for a moment of poorly worded remarks about antisemitism.

The body that could ultimately decide Dr. Gay’s fate, the Harvard Corporation, is scheduled to meet on Monday.

As critics of Dr. Gay doubled down, an effort was underway to save her job. As of Sunday evening, more than 400 members of the Harvard faculty had signed a petition urging “in the strongest possible terms” to “resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom.” Harvard has about 2,300 faculty members.

Dr. Gay has apologized for her remarks before a congressional committee last Tuesday, which she acknowledged were inadequate.

“I am sorry,” Dr. Gay said in an interview that the campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, published on Friday. “When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret,” she said. Dr. Gay is the first Black woman to lead Harvard and took on the role less than six months ago.

As her position grew increasingly tenuous, the fallout from last week’s hearing deepened. Late Saturday, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, resigned. And calls from donors for the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sally Kornbluth, to step aside also grew louder.