University of Pennsylvania donors and supporters are rapidly turning against President Liz Magill over her handling of campus antisemitism, but the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is standing by President Sally Kornbluth.
Mark Gorenberg, who heads the MIT Corporation, the equivalent of a board of trustees, posted an open letter to “members of the MIT community” saying that Ms. Kornbluth has the body’s “full and unreserved support.”
“I write now to let you know that I and the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation entirely support President Kornbluth,” said Mr. Gorenberg in the letter dated Thursday.
The statement came after the House Education and the Workforce Committee announced Thursday it would launch an investigation into Harvard, Penn and MIT after their presidents’ much-criticized responses to questions about antisemitism at a Tuesday hearing in Washington.
“The MIT Corporation chose Sally to be our president for her excellent academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass, and her ability to unite our community around MIT’s core values,” said Mr. Gorenberg. “She has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate, all of which we reject utterly at MIT. She has our full and unreserved support.”
Calls erupted for the ouster of Ms. Kornbluth, Ms. Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay after Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, asked them at the hearing if calling for “the genocide of Jews” violates their campus codes of conduct. They said it would depend on the context and whether the speech shaded over into action.
Ms. Kornbluth, a cell biologist who assumed the MIT presidency in January, told Ms. Stefanik that “I have not heard calling for the genocide of Jews on our campus.”
“But you’ve heard chants for intifada,” said Ms. Stefanik, referring to campus protesters calling for “intifada,” which refers to an armed uprising against Israel.
“I’ve heard chants which can be antisemitic depending on the context when calling for the elimination of the Jewish people,” said Ms. Kornbluth, adding that such calls “would be investigated as harassment if pervasive and severe.”
NEW: @MIT Corporation Chair Mark P. Gorenberg has released a statement stating that he “and the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation entirely support President Kornbluth.”
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) December 8, 2023
“She has our full and unreserved support,” the Corporation said in a public statement. pic.twitter.com/NKbJiYISSn
Ms. Kornbluth has not spoken publicly on her comments since the hearing, unlike Ms. Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay, who issued statements afterward walking back their responses.
Ms. Gay went a step further in a Thursday interview with the Harvard Crimson, saying, “I am sorry.”
Those calling for the three presidents to resign include billionaire Harvard grad Bill Ackman and a bipartisan group of 76 federal lawmakers led by Ms. Stefanik.
Major Penn donors led by billionaire Marc Rowan have called for Ms. Magill to be removed, citing both her response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli civilians and a previous flap over a campus conference called Palestine Writes that included speakers accused of antisemitism.
Penn’s Wharton School Board of Advisors, which Mr. Rowan chairs, called Thursday for the university to change its leadership.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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